Safety in numbers
by Kasverah
Summary: Set some time after Tsunade becomes Hokage. Naruto is being terrorised by an unknown ninja, and as a result he goes through hell. Will his worst fears be realised? Uncertain, but with Sasuke's overprotective crush at full throttle, Naruto will have difficulty hiding anything. Sasuke/Naruto pairing, rape, sexual assault, and violence present. CHARACTERS AGED UP TO 16 IF UNDERAGE
1. Chapter 1

Naruto was poised in-between two trees, pressing his hands and feet against them to lodge himself securely. From where he was he had a good view of the part of the forest he'd been told to watch for their mission, and this way he didn't have to focus too much on his chakra. Grinning to himself, he looked down, and thought of ways he could succeed in the mission on his own. Without needing that damn Sasuke. Maybe if he found that thief on his own, Sakura would be impressed enough to go with him for some Ramen. He could even try that new ramen, the one that had mushrooms and onions mixed with fresh peas and garlic. He really ought to try it he thought, and that would be a great celebratory meal. In fact, even if Sakura didn't agree to go out with him, he would treat himself to that ramen if he did the mission by himself. But then if the others ended up helping…well, he could always just have the ramen anyway. He was overdue for a fancy reward, having done several missions more than just 'well' recently.

Naruto was so distracted by his daydreams of Ramen that he didn't notice the male ninja silently closing in behind him. The first thing he became aware of was a hand pressed against the small of his back. In milliseconds he lost control of his chakra, and was using only his physical strength to hold his body, which he realised felt extremely heavy without any mystical help, in place. About to yell out, Naruto choked slightly as a hand covered his mouth tightly, and a voice whispered in his ear.

'I wouldn't do that if I were you, right now I could knock you out of this tree, it _would_ be a good way to test your apparently impressive skills, now then, wouldn't it? Now, call me boastful, but you see, I've performed a ninjutsu which has temporarily blocked your chakra flow.' The voice chuckled darkly. 'Don't worry, it will return…eventually, until then, I suggest you don't yell, or we might have a little…accident.'

Naruto glanced down, internally cursing the fact that he was so incredibly high up. He didn't like his odds of finding something to grab onto without the help of his chakra before hitting the ground. The hand moved away from his mouth, and Naruto paled as he felt it sliding down his back. Two fingers pressed and rubbed in between his buttocks, then moved around so that they stroked his crotch. He felt sick at the touch. It felt wrong, almost like some slimy creature was inside him, squirming around. But then a flash of fear went through him as his body began to respond of its own accord.

'Stop it!' Naruto hissed between gritted teeth.

'But, you seem to be enjoying it so!' The hand began to rub faster, and hardening Naruto's erection. 'And I believe I am your first. I just LOVE being the first.' A tongue came and licked Naruto's neck, and slimed its way up to his ear.

'No!' He gasped, as his arms and legs shuddered, the sensation turning his muscles into jelly, and panic running through his body.

The movements became rough, but didn't stop the physical feelings contrasting with disgusted emotions rushing through Naruto as he closed his eyes and cringed against it.

Then a hand pushed its way through the waistband of Naruto's trousers, and touched bare skin.

Out of shock, Naruto cried out, and the hands withdrew suddenly, an arm quickly wrapping around his neck. Naruto groped at the arm that now both held him up, and cut off his air supply. Struggling, he felt his legs lose their strength, and slide, so that he was dangling from the arm that was suffocating him. He flailed around for some form of support, finding it only in the ninja's arm. A voice hissed in his ear 'I warned you,' and Naruto's vision started to go black, 'If you survive this, and I hope you will as I'd hate to lose my new plaything, I wouldn't advise mentioning this to anyone, Naru-chan.' The last word had a disgustingly sarcastic sweetness to it, as if the words were made of sugar laced with poison.

The Ninja released Naruto, who tried desperately to suck in a breath, but couldn't manage it, as the air just seemed to rush past him rather than into his mouth. As the ground drew closer and closer, he reached out towards the trees, desperately trying to pull himself close, but without the use of his chakra it was hopeless. Just as he was about to run out of time, a dark blur sped towards him, and caught him, roughly pulling him into a tree, and throwing him down on a thick branch. Naruto gratefully gasped in oxygen, and clung tightly to the tree limb under him, as Sasuke rounded on him, panting.

'BAKA! What the hell were you playing at? Are you trying to get yourself killed?'

Sasuke stared at Naruto, who was shaking slightly, and wouldn't let go of the branch. It took the raven a while to work out that Naruto was not going to answer with his usual retorts.

'Baka. Why weren't you using your Chakra?'

'Shut up teme.' Said Naruto, in a strangely shaky voice. Carefully regaining his balance, Naruto stood up, refusing to look at Sasuke in the eye.

'We got the thief. Kakashi says we can go.' Sasuke said, a little of the viciousness from his voice gone.

Naruto turned his back to Sasuke. He didn't even care that he'd failed to help the mission in any way, and all thought of ramen were gone from his mind. Adrenaline and terror washed over his body, and he edged back to the trunk of the tree. Sasuke's expression turned from angry, to confused as he watched his team member clumsily slide down the tree trunk, and walk away towards the village. Jumping down, he stood in front of Naruto, arms crossed, and stared at the blonde.

'What's wrong?' Sasuke said, bluntly. If Naruto had looked up he would have seen a flicker of concern in the eyes of his teammate, but Naruto was in no mood to let anyone see how terrified he looked.

'Leave me alone teme.' He snarled, and Sasuke's eyes hardened.

'Fine, it's your own fault for falling out of the tree. You do know that doing something stupid like that could bring the whole team down right?' Sasuke spat, only just managing to stop himself from saying 'And you do know how much you scared me right?' But far from this riling Naruto into his old self, this seemed to break Naruto, who glared through glistening eyes at the ground.

'I don't care.' He seethed, and ran past Sasuke back to the village. Sasuke watched him get smaller and smaller before disappearing between the first houses. He kept staring stupidly after the blonde, wondering what the hell had just happened.

Bursting into his small apartment, Naruto slammed the door shut, and leant against it, glaring through watery eyes. He hated Sasuke so much right now. As if he'd done it on purpose. It was all that stupid Ninja's fault…a small shiver went up his spine as he remembered, but he shrugged it off. He'd just be prepared next time. No one was going to get away with what had just happened _ever again._ Going to his room he hid a couple of extra kunai under his t-shirt, and sat on his bed. He wasn't going to be able to sleep tonight, that much he knew.

Three ninjas sat in a dark room, with only a candle to see by, rolling dice behind curved palms on a table, and exchanging coins as they lost or won, calling out numbers, with the occasional mutter of "liar" as one called the other's bluff. A breeze ruffled their clothes as the door opened, then shut, and a dark figure entered the room.

'I think he's scared.' Came the sickeningly sweet voice.

'Boss…' came a cautious voice from one of the seated ninja's, 'are you sure you should have done that?'

A deathly silence filled the room, and the other two figures shrank away from the one who had spoken.

'Are you questioning me?'

"I just…hasn't that warned him? Put him on alert? What if he tells someone?'

The figure by the door didn't even seem to move, but suddenly the ninja who had voiced doubt screamed as a kunai flew at their face, cutting through their eyebrow and eye, lodging itself just above their cheekbone, blood flowing from the wound.

'Never doubt me. You think he will tell anyone? Who would he tell? They all hate him. And he knows it. He has no friends, idiot. Never question me again.'

The injured ninja stifled his screams, still whimpering, and crawled away into a side room, and the others heard him cry out as he tried to heal his injury. The dark figure came over to the other two, settled down beside the table, and picked up the abandoned dice, rolling them behind a cupped hand.

'Five threes.'

The next day Sasuke was the first to get to their meeting spot, a clearing in the woods, so he sat down and tried to work out what to say to Naruto. He briefly considered apologising, but threw that thought out the window immediately. He had done nothing wrong. Maybe the fall had just scared his rival; things would be back to normal again soon enough.

As the blonde appeared, Sasuke got up and walked towards him. Naruto paused as he saw Sasuke, and sent a glare his way before turning and going to the opposite side of the clearing.

'Hey, Baka, are you gonna be falling out of any trees today?' After getting no response Sasuke grunted, and said 'I thought so, you fall out of one tree and get too scared to go back up.'

Naruto span round on his heel and yelled 'Hah! I'm better at climbing than you are teme!'

'Prove it.' smirked Sasuke.

There was a brief pause before both boys leapt towards the nearest tree, and darted upwards. Branches rushed past them as they scaled the bark using chakra, dodging through the canopy, and leaping upwards. Air rushed past the raven, and he glanced over to see the blonde had gained some ground on him, closing in on the treetops. Grunting, Sasuke tried to put on a burst of speed, but Naruto matched it, and got to the uppermost branches seconds before Sasuke, and cheered, grinning at the rising sun. Sasuke glared at his rival, who was laughing at him, whilst he himself felt disappointed at his loss. But secretly, he was happy that Naruto seemed to have cheered up, not that he was going to let that show. Sasuke then found himself watching the morning light glowing off Naruto's face. It lit up his beaming smile, making his face glow with pride, and his blonde bangs shine like gold. Sasuke couldn't stop a small smile tugging at his mouth, so he was very happy that the sun was behind him, casting his face into shadow.

'Sasuke?' came Sakura's call, and Sasuke inwardly groaned, before following Naruto back to the grass below.

'Hey Sakura!' grinned Naruto, cheerfully strutting towards her, 'Looking forward to today's mission?'

Sakura glared at the boy, and snapped 'What help will you be? You weren't even there when we caught that thief yesterday! I bet you were busy daydreaming about ramen.'

Naruto seemed to slump slightly, and Sasuke, who had just appeared behind him, felt a slight urge to shake Sakura until she agreed to stop picking on Naruto. He'd only just cheered Naruto up, and now this pink haired menace had…

Luckily Kakashi turned up at that moment, appearing in a puff of smoke, and distracting the trio.

'Kakashi! You're early!' Sakura said, open-mouthed.

'Yes, that's because I haven't slept yet. We have no mission. I'm giving you guys the day off.'

Sakura immediately appeared beside Sasuke, latching onto an arm, and stared at him with sparkling eyes. 'Sasuke…would you like to go and have lunch together?'

'No, I think I need to train some more.' said Sasuke stiffly.

'Wow, Sasuke, you're a really incredible Genin!' Sakura gushed.

'I'm going to train too.' said Naruto, grinning at Sakura, who glared at him as if he'd ruined something.

'I guess I need to go do some chores…' she sighed, 'Bye Sasuke, enjoy your training, don't let Naruto annoy you too much.'

Naruto glared at Sasuke before heading into the forest to train. Sasuke followed at a safe distance, before finding somewhere close to Naruto, but not noticeably near, to practice. He didn't want Naruto to realise he was keeping an ear out for him, but he also didn't want anything to happen again. Sighing, he began his warm ups.

Finding a clearing, Naruto sat down, and stared blearily at the trees around him. He was so tired he couldn't think straight. He'd sat up all night, on guard, but now felt drowsy, and slightly ill. He hadn't been able to eat yet either, and his stomach was not happy about this.

Flopping backwards, he stared up at the sky, his eyelids drooping, as he started to fall asleep.

'Nice save from that Uchiha kid, Naru-chan.'

In an instant Naruto was alert and up on his feet, staring around, kunai in hand, but unable to spot his tormentor. Pulling on his chakra, he tried to search for another chakra pulse, but before he had time to do it properly, a hand again pressed against his back. Naruto screamed out as fear, shock, and horror collided inside him. He whipped round, backing away quickly, and staring wide eyed at the Ninja.

'Oh, tut _tut_ Naru-chan, have we learnt nothing?' The ninja asked in a singsong voice. Naruto had imagined all sorts of horrifying things, during the night, when he'd thought of the ninja, having never seen him. But in reality the ninja looked so normal, so ordinary. If it weren't for the sly look and chilling grin across his face, Naruto wouldn't have suspected him at all. The kunai felt like a useless heavy lump in Naruto's hand as the ninja advanced on Naruto, backing him up against a tree, and curling his hand under Naruto's chin. 'I never got to finish my fun, and trust me, I always finish a job I start.' The malicious look in the ninja's eye made Naruto turn cold, and his hands turned weak as he dropped the kunai. But just as the man leant in, they both heard the sound of someone, or something, coming towards them. Naruto turned towards where the noise was coming from, and without warning he felt something slam across the side of his head, knocking him to the ground.

Sasuke had been trying to improve his distanced aim when he heard Naruto's scream. Paling, he sped towards the sound, his stomach lurching at the sudden silence. _Stupid baka, he better not have cracked his head open, why oh why did I have to dare him to climb a tree, I'd be perfectly happy if he never went up one again…_

As he leapt into a tree he spotted a figure and leapt towards it. Nearing it he saw it was a male ninja, who seemed to be holding a slumped Naruto up. His heart in his mouth, Sasuke leapt down in front of them and moved towards them.

'What happened?' He asked, pausing, as Naruto seemed to pull away from the ninja, before being caught by him as he swayed unsteadily.

'Is this your friend?' the stranger asked, and Sasuke nodded. 'He fell from that tree, I caught him, but I think he hit his head on the way down. Perhaps I should take him back to the village?'

Sasuke watched as Naruto again, more forcefully this time, pushed the ninja away, and stumbled against the nearby tree.

'That's okay, I can take him…' Sasuke looked back at the ninja, who had an unreadable expression on his face. 'Thank you.'

'Oh it's fine, hope he's okay, he was training so hard.' The ninja ruffled Naruto's hair, and Sasuke realised that his teammate was pale and shaking. As the ninja disappeared into the depths of the forest, Sasuke turned to Naruto.

'C'mon, I'll take you back to get checked over.'

'I'm…' Naruto gulped, his voice was dry and hoarse, and his mind full of thoughts of what would have happened if Sasuke hadn't turned up. '…I'm fine…lets just…get back to the…the village…'

Sasuke made no comment, but did not believe for a second Naruto was okay, and watched him carefully as they walked back.

'What's wrong? This is the second time you've fallen out of a tree…'

'I didn't fall.' Naruto said quietly.

'What are you talking about, that guy said he caught you mid fall, Naruto what's going on? Pretending nothings wrong when you're obviously weak is…' Naruto interrupted him by turning on him and yelling 'I'M NOT WEAK!'

'WELL THEN WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?'

Naruto's retort seemed to die in his throat, and he turned away, his mind full of fear of what would happen if he told Sasuke, he was sure Sasuke would never believe him, and who knows what that ninja would do to him if he told Sasuke what had happened. Looking away he searched for words that would solve his situation.

'I just…think I'm ill…and…something…I…chakra is…' Sasuke hated how small and scared Naruto looked. Something was obviously getting to him, if it was just this stupid falling out of a tree business why didn't he just get it out?

'What do you mean?' he spat.

'He just…he caught me when I fell…'

'A second ago you said you didn't fall.'

'Well maybe I did, why does it matter to you?'

'Stop being so stupid! If something's wrong just tell me and stop hiding it!'

When he got no reaction, Sasuke grabbed Naruto, who flinched and tried to tug away, but Sasuke held onto his arm stubbornly.

'What happened, Naruto tell me, I know something's wrong, so just tell me!'

Naruto refused to meet his gaze, so Sasuke shoved him against a tree, and held him there by the shoulders. Suddenly Naruto seemed to panic, and pushed Sasuke away with all his strength, before sprinting off towards the village.

'NARUTO!' Sasuke yelled, before cursing and running after him.

Naruto ran as fast as he could. He was in a panic; Sasuke had brought back to him how real it had been when the ninja had trapped him against the tree, and all he wanted to do was find somewhere to hide. But as soon as he realised he'd just run away from someone, and was alone, he ran even faster. He seemed to gain energy from somewhere, and slowly the chakra again filled his body, and he sprinted gasping into the village, right into the market. Gasping for air, he came to a halt, and collapsed against a fence, staring around at the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It was all so normal, so unconcerned. He began to walk, still panting deeply, between the crowds. Their looks of dislike and glares almost felt welcome due to their familiarity. He walked all the way through the busy street to his block, climbing the stairs, and pausing outside his flat, looking over the railing at the life going on around him. It was noisy & felt safe, surely nothing would happen here at this time of day? Still uncertain, he sat down outside his door and stared blankly across the rooftops and houses.

That's where Sasuke found him. After losing him in the woods, he had decided to head to Naruto's flat, hoping he'd be there. What he did not expect was a shell of Naruto's bubbly usual self, gazing vacantly across the village. Sasuke's heart gave a small flutter, and seemed to rise up his throat. He wanted to rush over and take Naruto in his arms, protecting him, and make him say what was wrong so that he could fight it… but he didn't think that Naruto would understand, or even feel the same. That uncertainty and his own reputation for being unemotional and stoic held him back.

He went and stood next to Naruto, who still didn't seem to notice him.

'Hey, baka.' He could not have prepared for Naruto's reaction; in seconds the other boy was on his feet, and backing away from Sasuke with a shaking kunai held out in front of him, his eyes wide and a terrified look on his face. A few seconds passed before Naruto lowered his kunai slightly, and his look of fear turned into a fierce glare.

'What are you doing here teme?' he blurted out, not dropping his arm completely. His mind was in a frenzy trying to catch up with what was happening; this was not another assault, but Sasuke had just about given him a heart attack appearing so silently like that, it had made him realise how he really couldn't let his guard down. How easy it would have been for an enemy to sneak up on him, even here, out in full view of everyone else. _I doubt anyone would even do anything…_ came the unasked-for thought.

'Naruto…why did you run off?' Sasuke didn't close the distance between them, realising something was very wrong. Looking at Naruto, he thought that maybe he should just leave Naruto alone; he was deeply concerned, but decided that if Naruto didn't answer he should stop probing for that day. He was getting nowhere like this.

'Because you…because I wanted to get away from you.' Naruto stared at Sasuke as if the raven was an idiot for not understanding something so obvious.

The two stared at each other, both trying to out-glare the other, before Sasuke grunted.

'Fine.' He turned on his heel and left.

The minute he had gone round the corner, Naruto regretted his decision, and wanted to run after Sasuke, but at the same time didn't want to give him the satisfaction. As he stood there, unsure of what to do, he heard a door slam shut nearby and jumped. He glanced around, suddenly noticing that it was nearing the end of the afternoon, and the street was slowly emptying. A small chill went up Naruto's spine, and he flung himself at his door, quickly locking it behind himself once he was inside. Breathing heavily he turned and faced the familiar safety of his home, and slumped to the floor. Resting his elbows on his knees he cupped his face in his hands. This was going to be a long evening, and an even longer night. He wondered if he'd even feel safe sleeping. But first things first; his stomach reminded him that it had been too long since his last meal, and that hunger was clouding his thinking. After five bowls of ramen, he felt much better, stronger, and decided to take things into his own hands. If this ninja could block his chakra, he'd just have to improve on his physical attacks.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day Naruto had hardly had any sleep, so little that he may as well have not slept, but despite the fact that he now felt delirious, and light headed, he felt slightly surer of himself. He had a plan if that ninja appeared again, and he felt he could handle things better than he had before. Being terrified of this unknown ninja wasn't getting him anywhere. He didn't even know whether this guy was a Chuunin or Jounin, though he seemed to be at least Chuunin by his dress and skills.

As Naruto swayed into the clearing, he realised he was the last there, apart from Kakashi, and grinned sheepishly at Sakura, who had shot him an evil glare when he had appeared. It was clear she had been trying to cosy up to Sasuke again, and Naruto felt a shot of jealousy towards him. Though ironically he felt anger at Sakura as well. He explained this away as being angry with her for liking Sasuke over himself, but soon forgot about it as Kakashi appeared.

'Naruto! You were almost as late as Kakashi!' Sakura trilled, laughing at him, as Sasuke tried to keep an uncaring look on his face whilst actually wanting to throttle her.

'Well I'm glad you're all here on time-' 'an _hour_ early' Sakura muttered '-because we have a mission. Today you're needed to weed Madame Teek's garden.' Both Sakura and Naruto groaned, and Sasuke remained as neutral as ever. Trudging after Kakashi as he led them to their destination, Sasuke became aware that despite Naruto seeming to be his old self, he was swaying slightly. This wouldn't have been quite as noticeable if he didn't keep walking into things.

When they got to the garden they were meant to be weeding they all stared in horror. A jungle faced them, with weeds taller than them and strange noises emanating from somewhere deeper in the undergrowth. Sakura seemed to twitch slightly as Kakashi cheerfully greeted the old woman.

'Well, have fun you youngsters, though this is probably a nice easy break from your usual work.' chuckled the old lady, going back into her house with Kakashi.

The trio stared for quite a while at the jungle, before Naruto decided to advance on it. This would be a perfect chance to improve his physical strength.

'Come on guys!' He cheered, 'It's only a bunch of weeds!' He struggled his way through the first few as Sakura and Sasuke reluctantly followed. Some of the stems were as thick as an arm, but together - and individually - they steadily managed to make a dent in the chaos.

As mid afternoon arrived and shadows began to lengthen, they had cleared a path to a little fountain in the centre of the garden. Wanting to get some peace, Sasuke asked Sakura if she could neaten it up. She seemed to be about to squee at being requested to do something by Sasuke, and diligently poured her efforts into making it look perfect. Sasuke led a resistant Naruto through the thick weeds to the other end of the garden. He'd finally worked out what was wrong with the blonde. He wasn't taking any breaks – there was no way he could keep going like that.

'Hey, baka, are you too stupid to keep watch for snakes for me?'

'Bastard, I can do that easy!' Naruto growled, grinning.

'Great. Then go sit on that patch of grass and watch for me,'

Naruto frowned; he had wanted to do more physical training, but he _was_ exhausted, so he plopped down. Within minutes he had slumped over, fast asleep. Sasuke smiled, and threw himself into the work, trying to do twice as much as he had been doing before. He kept glancing over at the blonde, who was sleeping deeply, but there was no change as the day got darker. When the distant clock tower bells rang to tell them their work for the day was over, he heard Sakura's shrill voice calling him. Slumping, he wiped his brow, before smiling slightly at the conked out Naruto. Sadly it was time to wake him though. Going over, he rested a hand on the blonde's arm, and shook him to wake him up. But before he could get even the word 'baka' out, Naruto had flinched at the touch. He tried to scramble away, gasping, suddenly pale, breaking out in a cold sweat, and shaking. It was such a rapid transformation that Sasuke didn't know how to react.

'N…no…I…wait…' Naruto's voice quivered, and tears spilled down his cheeks.

'Hey! Hey Naruto!' Sasuke grabbed him, and forced the blondes face to look at his own. Their eyes met, and Naruto calmed down, but then confusion clouded them.

'Um…teme…what are you doing?' Naruto sounded so normal, and a wry smile crept over his face. 'You kind of look like you're going to kiss me again.' He mocked.

'And you kind of look like you were crying just a second ago.' Sasuke retorted without even thinking. Immediately he regretted it, as Naruto pulled away, the smile gone, and wiped his face.

'SASUKE!' the shrill voice came from just behind Naruto as Sakura came into view, and Sasuke scowled at her. 'That's it for today. The lady is offering us some tea, would you like some? There's a sofa and a chair, so if you want, we can sit together!' The hopeful glint in her eyes disappeared and became a scowl as Naruto walked away. 'Hey idiot, you know it's rude to refuse right? What sort of a Genin are you?'

Naruto froze; he really wanted to just go home, but she was right. Pasting a dumb grin on his face he said 'I know, and the house is this way!'.

'Are you seriously that stupid?' Sakura asked, her hands on her hips. 'The house is THIS way. Idiot.' Her voice was so full of spite that Sasuke couldn't stop himself.

'I think the idiot is the one who took all afternoon to clear a single fountain.' Sakura turned to him, her eyes full of hurt, before she ran tearfully to the house.

'That was harsh.' Naruto spat. Sasuke said nothing, but followed Naruto back to the house, hands in pockets. Sakura had taken the chair, leaving the loveseat for Naruto and Sasuke, who both sat awkwardly drinking the green tea as the old woman told them all about her life.

Darkness had engulfed the village by the time they freed themselves of the old lady's clutches, with excuses of needing rest so that they could work well tomorrow when they returned. Naruto hung back at the old lady's porch, where a lamp lit up the area.

'Sasuke,' Sakura sang, 'will you walk me home?'

He glanced over at the anxious Naruto, and made a decision.

'No, I need to go to Naruto's block, I dropped a kunai there.' Sakura seemed disappointed but accepted the excuse, and Naruto - who would normally have complained - remained silent. Something was terribly wrong, and Sasuke wanted to get to the bottom of it.

As the two boys walked home, the silence began to get to Sasuke. He was used to silence, in fact walking in silence was his preferred way of walking, but he really wasn't used to Naruto being so silent. A plan formed in his mind. He began digging around in his pockets, and frowned.

'What?' Naruto queried, as they came to a halt.

'Shut up, I'm looking for my keys.' Sasuke replied.

Naruto glanced around the dark empty street nervously.

'Damn.' Sasuke muttered.

'What is it?' Naruto asked, shuffling slightly closer, and further from a dark alley.

'I think I dropped my keys in the garden.'

'Well that was stupid.'

'Baka. It's your fault, you fell asleep, you should have been watching. You'd have seen me drop them if you hadn't gone to sleep.'

'What? How the hell do you come to a conclusion like that?' Naruto almost yelled, and Sasuke smirked internally.

'You'll have to let me sleep at yours.'

'There you go again! How the hell-'

'Or do _you_ want to go wake up the old lady so I can find them?'

'Fine. Teme.' Naruto snapped, shoving his hands in his pockets, and kicking at some pebbles in the road. Sasuke almost actually grinned, delighted as he was with his success. It was such a simple plan. It had so many flaws, but none of them had been picked up by his teammate… however that did mean that whatever was wrong was badly wrong. Normally Naruto would never have agreed to this, no matter the reason.

As they arrived at the flat, Naruto fumbled with his keys, glancing around nervously, before stabbing at the lock, and managing to brute force the key into the lock properly.

'You'll break it that way.' Sasuke said as they entered the flat. He had been about to say something else, when the words died in his throat. He had expected a slum. The room should have been cluttered with stuff, messy and disorganised, but there were so few belongings. There were a few items of clothing strewn on the floor, ramen packets on the kitchen work surface, but everything else was tidy. There was a table, some chairs, the kitchenette area, and a sofa in the room they entered, and Sasuke could see doors to a bathroom and a bedroom. It wasn't half bad, all things considered.

'Sofa's all yours.' Naruto said, going to make himself a bowl of ramen. Sasuke sat down on it, and watched the blonde. His movements were tense. There was a sudden bang from outside, and Naruto flinched, spilling boiling water on his hand.

'Careful baka!' Sasuke scolded, jumping up and hurrying to Naruto, who hadn't even squeaked at the pain. Dragging him over to the sink, Sasuke forced him to run it under cold water.

'But ramen!' Naruto wailed indignantly.

'For crying out loud _I'LL_ do it.' He quickly grabbed the packet, read the instructions, and finished preparing it.

'You can make yourself some too you know.' Naruto mumbled from the sink.

'You're kidding right?' Sasuke responded, glaring at the packet as if it had offended him. Naruto smirked.

'You've never even tried it have you.'

'Why would I want to?'

'Because it's amazing?'

Sasuke scowled, but then his stomach grumbled, so he made himself a bowl as well. They both sat down on the sofa, and Naruto grinned as Sasuke poked the food suspiciously.

'Just eat it teme.' Naruto said, and Sasuke took a small mouthful. It tasted…odd. Naruto happily wolfed his down before Sasuke had even got half way through his. The blonde leaned back happily, and closed his eyes in contentment. Sasuke froze, and waited. Soon enough Naruto's breathing became deeper, and he was definitely asleep. Carefully putting his food on the floor, Sasuke gently pulled Naruto so that the blonde was leaning on him. Naruto smiled happily in his sleep, and Sasuke let a small, gentle smile cross his face, before wrapping an arm around Naruto, and falling asleep, with the little blonde cocooned in his arms.

Naruto woke up, and the room was dark. Sasuke was nowhere to be seen. Panic lurched through him, and he grasped for the light by the sofa. Noises came from the door, which he realised was slightly ajar. He found the light, but the damn thing wouldn't turn on. Terror shot through his body, and he threw himself at the door, slamming it shut, but then a voice chuckled from behind him. He turned to see the ninja, a cruel smile gleaming in the middle of his face, teeth lit up by the moonlight.

'Well my little Naru-chan, let's carry on shall we?' faster than should have been possible, arms were wrapped around him, hands searching and probing his body, a face inches from his. Naruto began to scream, but nothing came out. He screamed and screamed into the silence, as a tongue came out, and slid its way up his neck.

'Naruto, Naruto wake up!' a voice yelled from far away, and suddenly the room shook, things fell off shelves, and the face jumped into clarity, vicious snarl transforming into a familiar face. Naruto yelped, and fell off the sofa, sobbing, trying desperately to scream, but only a whimper came out. Sasuke slid to the floor beside him, and heaved him into a sitting position, holding his shoulders, forcing him to make eye contact.

'Naruto. Please. What's going on?' It was less a question, and more a demand. Naruto sobbed, and fell into Sasuke's chest. Automatically Sasuke cradled him, holding him gently, Naruto's hands clinging to the front of his shirt.

'Pl..plea..se..ju..just…don…go…' Naruto sobbed, and Sasuke found himself curling protectively around the small blonde. He seemed so weak and helpless. It was awful. Sasuke would have done anything at that moment to make it right.

He had been woken up by Naruto twitching and whimpering in his sleep. After Sasuke had tried to shake him awake, which hadn't worked, the blonde had started moaning, and sounding like he was trying to scream. Calling Naruto's name had seemed to work at first, because Naruto had opened his eyes, but the fear in them had shocked Sasuke. The raven stared down at the blonde, who had gone back to sleep, completely lost for what to do. At least Naruto would get some sleep, he thought to himself, but the frown on the other boy's face made him wonder if that was a good thing.

Remembering something his nursemaid had done for him when he had slept badly, he gently let Naruto slide onto the floor, before quickly getting up to go to the kitchen. He felt bad, especially after Naruto had asked him to stay, for letting go of him, but he was still in the same room. He grabbed a bowl, then rummaged through the cupboards to find cinnamon and some oranges, before mashing them together, and pouring hot water on them. He picked up a towel, and the bowl, and brought them over to Naruto. Sitting down, he lifted Naruto onto the sofa, dipped the towel in the mixture, then squeezed it before placing it over Naruto's forehead. The smell was strong enough that he could smell it, and the blonde's face slowly softened, and his breathing relaxed.

Sasuke settled on the floor, leant against the sofa, and held onto Naruto's hand, determined to keep watch over his charge, but the smell drifting across him soon sent him to sleep, where he dreamt of guarding Naruto's dreams.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes. His face felt damp, and there was a delicious smell in the air. He felt warm and safe, better than he had for the past few days. In fact, he felt…something new. Something that felt a lot like that feeling he felt when he saw families together, but without the pain. The room was lit with the warm glow of the morning, that gave everything an orange cast to it. He turned his head, and found himself inches away from Sasuke's sleeping face. He fought the urge to flinch back, and tried to calm his breathing. Something warm filled his belly. Something delicious and yet terrifying at the same time. He realised that one of his hands was entangled with Sasuke's, and flushed. But watching the sleeping boy, he couldn't help wanting to touch that soft white face. It looked like it would feel so nice.

He reached out a hand, and lightly as a moth, brushed his fingers against the ravens skin. It was soft and pleasant, and he could feel the hard jaw bone, and ran his fingers down it to the chin. Inches away from the lips, he didn't notice himself getting closer. The smell he had noticed earlier swirled around him, and he felt giddy, and smiled. He could just touch them gently he thought, looking at the sleeping boys lips. He ran a finger over the bottom lip, and Sasuke shivered, making Naruto flinch back. He waited, and when Sasuke seemed to have gone still again, he ran his hand through the dark hair, burying his fingers deep in the thick locks. He then slid closer, and rested his forehead against Sasuke's, something soft cushioning him where his head met Sasuke's. His heart was beating faster, his breath shivering as he drowned himself in the strong sensation spilling through his body. He smiled, and almost giggled at the tickle of Sasuke's hair on his face, and nuzzled into it, breathing in the scent of what he thought must be honeysuckle. It was so sweet and intoxicating. He let himself drift back into a doze, lapping up all the feelings mixing themselves inside him, and was almost asleep again when he heard the clock bell go. He frowned slightly, then shot up, knocking Sasuke's head off the sofa.

'Baka, what the hell?' Sasuke cursed.

'We're meant to be at that old lady's house right now. As in right this second now.' Naruto almost yelled, leaping up and grabbing his stuff. He was so busy that Sasuke had time to force the flush away from his cheeks before Naruto could spot it. Something had woken him up, and the next thing he knew, Naruto had been playing with his hair and snuggling closer. It had been wonderful, but now he wondered if he had dreamt it. Quickly grabbing his own stuff, he ran after Naruto as they both sprinted down the street to the old lady's house.

Sliding to a stop, Naruto and Sasuke got there, panting, just as Sakura rounded the corner. She called out a curt greeting but neither boy responded, as Sasuke stomped into the garden. He had a vague memory of the night, and now had no idea what was going on. He felt more useless than ever. He always had a plan, always knew what he was doing… but this time he was at a loss.

'I'm going to work in the south east corner.' Sakura said sulkily, and Sasuke grunted an acknowledgement. He headed to a different quarter, and Naruto disappeared in the other direction. He wondered if last night had been a good idea after all.

Naruto meanwhile was attacking the weeds with new fervour. His head was a mess. Part of him was thinking about the ninja, part was distracted by Sasuke, another was telling him _not_ to be distracted by Sasuke and whatever he was playing at, and the next was telling him he should be focusing on fighting the ninja and training for that. All in all he just wanted to punch and destroy things. He yelled triumphantly as he tore out a large network of tangled plants in one go, and kept yanking, pulling, and snapping.

'You know,' came a voice, making Naruto swivel round lightning fast, 'snapping weeds just means they'll grow back.'

'Iruka sensei!' Naruto charged him, giving him a bear hug. 'What are you doing here?' he beamed.

'I came to keep an eye on you guys,' Iruka smiled, but then the smile faded, 'and Kakashi told me something was wrong. Naruto, what happened? In all the time I've known you, you've never just…fallen out of a tree.' Concerned eyes gazed down at Naruto, and he couldn't help but look away.

'I just fell, it's no big deal.' Naruto said with attempted nonchalance, but Iruka frowned.

'Okay, well I'm going to have tea with Mrs Teek whilst you carry on here. Yell if you need me.' He smiled, and walked back to the house as Naruto stared guiltily at his retreating back. Out of everyone, he wanted to tell Iruka the most what was going on. But he just couldn't. Not yet.

The day passed uneventfully, and as they headed home their separate ways, Sasuke just grunted by way of goodbye, and Naruto ended up walking home with Iruka. He felt a small tug inside him as he watched Sasuke go, but dismissed this as guilt. He wasn't sure what for, but guilt of some kind.

Naruto ranted and cheered, and talked all the way home, with Iruka happily joining in, and Naruto felt like everything was back to normal. This was how things should be. Yes he still kept getting the usual glares from passer bys, but it didn't matter. He could deal with that. As he got to the ramen shop, he persuaded Iruka to buy them both ramen, and joked with the ramen man, happily chatting to both men about various missions, and declaring that when he was Hokage, he would do this, that or the other. The older men smiled, and encouraged him, and it was with regret that they all parted ways.

When he got to his door, Naruto was digging his keys out of his pocket, a distracted smile on his face, when suddenly someone slammed his head into his door.

'You've been avoiding me Naru-chan.' The voice hissed, and Naruto paled, and began to panic. 'Let's go into your flat shall we?'

'No, no I won't let you do this anymore.' Naruto swelled up his chakra, about to use Kawarimi no Jutsu - to replace himself with a brick - when a hand appeared on the small of his back, and he felt his chakra disappear. He cursed, and tried to swing round to attack the ninja, but then a small spike pierced his temple, and the world faded to black.


	3. Chapter 3

Hi guys, this is my first Author's note because I didn't really know what to say before, and I'm still going to keep it brief, but I'd like to say some stuff and answer some things.

For FFdotNet: Thank you guys, you're all being lovely, yes I came up with this story on my own, I don't think I was influenced by anything other than the actual series, and my morbid imagination. Your reviews mean a lot to me though 3

For A03: I love how excited you are all getting, I know I've replied to as many comments as I could, but I still wanted to express my gratefulness.

That's it for now, I hope you all continue to enjoy these chapters, it might get grim, but please stick with it! xxx

When Naruto came to, the world was shadows, moonlight flickering off various surfaces. The side of his face felt slightly damp and crusty, like something wet was drying on it. He struggled to get up, but found his arms were bound behind his back. On wriggling his feet, he found his legs were tied up as well. His stomach felt cold, as if his top had been lifted up. He then realised he had some sort of gag, and couldn't breath properly when he tried to scream.

'Ah, Naru-chan, you're awake.' A dark shape appeared in Naruto's field of vision, pocketing a piece of paper. 'I'm sorry to have to bind you like this, but I can't have you fighting back.' The figure moved into the moonlight, but the features of the man's face were hidden by a hood. 'Finally, we won't be disturbed.' The voice was vicious, and almost hissed with anticipation. Naruto tried to roll away, muffled cries coming from him, but the figure bent over him and dragged him into the middle of the room. A foot lashed out and kicked Naruto in the chest, winding him. He tried to gasp for air, but couldn't fill his lungs. He desperately tried to slow his breathing, and breathe through his nose, but the figure was on him again, punching him in the throat. He gagged, and a hand grasped his chin, turning his face to one side, and licking his neck all the way up to his ear. He shuddered, and whimpered, coughing as his injured throat clenched, but the man only let out a low chuckle, twisting Naruto so that his face was crushed into the floor as he lay on his belly. Then Naruto started screaming. Very little noise got through the gag, but he was screaming. He strained, and struggled, and screamed, but nothing stopped the man as he pulled down Naruto's trousers, and exposed him to the cold air. The blonde felt sick as something slid into his anus, as at first the ninja only stuck his fingers in, scissoring them, opening Naruto's hole wider and wider, thrusting painfully. Then Naruto felt him lining up something thick and fleshy. Naruto tried to squirm away, to free himself from the grip he was being held in, but then it was pounding into his rectum, the pain felt like someone was tearing him open, tears poured down his cheeks, and he went hoarse from screaming. It was agony, it was disgusting, he felt violated, he felt weak and pathetic, and the man just grunted, and moaned, and laughed. It seemed to last forever. All Naruto wanted to do was curl up and die. This was so much worse than anything the other villagers had ever done. He felt hot liquid trickling between his legs, and at first thought it was finally over, but when the man didn't stop, he realised it was blood. He scrunched up his eyes, and tried to retreat inside his mind. Somewhere, anywhere, just to get away from this. But he couldn't He felt every single thrust, every single rip. Slowly the world began to shake, and he saw sparkling lights at the edge of his vision, the world dimmed, and he thought he would finally escape, but then it stopped, and a knife cut the cloth around his mouth away. He gasped in air, unable to do or say anything, and the ninja finally pulled out.

'Never ever make the mistake of thinking you are anything but a play thing,' The voice snarled, pulling up Naruto's trousers, and cutting his bonds. 'And now, now you are mine. Remember, I was your first, that makes you MINE.' He left through Naruto's open window, and was gone into the night. Naruto just lay there, blood seeping into his trousers, staining them crimson. He could barely move. Eventually he crawled and slid over to a corner, and curled up on his side, his back against the wall, his head resting on the floorboards, and closed his eyes. Tears ran down his face, the ones from his left eye mixing with the ones from his right eye as they dripped down across the bridge of his nose. He sobbed in the corner, wishing he could just die.

The ninja crossed the rooftops, and slid down into an alleyway by the edge of the village, where the other three waited, one with a bloody bandage over one eye.

'I have it.' He said, simply, pulling out a piece of paper with a copy of the tattoo on Naruto's stomach on it.

Sasuke paced his room. Since he had got home he had been worried. Naruto had seemed happier with Iruka, but something just felt wrong. He looked out the window, the moon was high, and it was late. Naruto would be asleep now, surely there was no harm in checking? But was that going into dangerously stalkerish territory? But something was definitely wrong. He'd just check. Just a quick check. He could get dressed for running practice, and use night-time roof running as an excuse. He'd just be practicing, and just happened to go past Naruto's house. Grabbing his stuff, and changing into all black, he tied a mask around his mouth and jumped out of his window, catching the edge of his roof, and sprinting across it to the next. He darted from house to house, until he crouched opposite Naruto's bedroom. The light was out, but when Sasuke snuck closer, the bedroom was empty. The bed looked messy, so maybe Naruto had gone to the bathroom, but no, the bathroom light was off, and the window didn't look like it gave enough moonlight for him to use the bathroom by. Also the bedroom window was open. It was a cold night. Why would the baka have his window open? This wasn't right.

Sasuke crept into Naruto's bedroom, feeling guilty for trespassing, but nevertheless he stole into the main room. Everything was normal, except the sofa. Everything by the sofa was a mess. The rug was wrinkled up and folded at the corner, one of the tables was knocked over. There was no sign of Naruto. Now really worried, Sasuke was about to leave, when he heard a small noise from one corner of the room. It was dark, and he could hardly see, but as he adjusted to the darkness, a cold sensation spread through his stomach. He reached out for the light that had fallen to the floor. It hadn't shattered, so he tried it. As light lit up the room, Sasuke stared disbelievingly at the figure curled up in the corner. There was a trail of blood on the floor leading to him, and he had curled up even tighter when the light had turned on. He was sobbing hoarsely.

'Naruto…' Sasuke breathed, collapsing beside the blonde, and trying to pull his arms away from his face,

'Pl…ea…no…more…plea….urgh…no…no…' Naruto's begging ended as he began to wail quietly, before coughing, but Sasuke pried his arms away, and revealed Naruto's red puffy eyes, his tear stained face, dried blood splashed over one temple. There were bruised, red marks around his mouth, showing he had been gagged. At first Naruto seemed to panic at the sight of Sasuke, and yelped, trying to tug away, but Sasuke ripped his mask off, and hushed Naruto, who looked up, and dissolved into sobs. His arms went limp as he recognised Sasuke, and he let the raven wrap his arms around him, and hug him tightly.

'Who.' It wasn't a question, it was a demand. Sasuke's voice had a knife sharp edge to it. Naruto could barely talk, let alone explain, and before the raven could ask anything further, Naruto passed out in his arms. Sasuke knew it wasn't sleep, and terror filled him. Quickly he picked up Naruto, whose head lolled back, revealing bruising on the neck, whilst his sleeves slipped, showing where he had been bound. Sasuke began to growl, but then saw blood staining Naruto's trousers, and dripping down onto the floor. Again terror seized him, colder this time, and he ran to the window, leaping out of it, clutching Naruto close as he sped towards the Hokage's house.

Tsunade was woken up in the middle of the night by someone hammering on her door as if they were trying to break it down. Scowling, she struggled out of bed, and grabbed a dressing down.

'Shut UP!' she yelled as she got to the door, she swung it open and yelled 'JUST WHAT DO…' the words died in her mouth as she saw a panic stricken Sasuke, and a bloody, wounded Naruto. She didn't know what scared her more – Naruto's condition or Sasuke's fear, Sasuke the unmoveable Uchiha.

'Inside, now.' She commanded, and Sasuke stumbled into the hallway, as Tsunade steered him into a living room. She motioned for him to put Naruto on the sofa, not even blinking as the white fabric was stained with blood. She rummaged in a cupboard, and pulled out her medical supplies. Looking him over closely, she shooed Sasuke out the room, before pulling down Naruto's trousers. She felt sick when she saw the state his rectum was in, though it was already beginning to heal. She salved it and covered it, before pulling his trousers off completely, and pulling up some soft grey ones she used in the hospital.

'Uchiha, come back in, I'm going to need your-' before she'd even finished, Sasuke was by her side, holding up Naruto's head for her. She nodded, and examined his facial injuries and bruised neck. After applying some cream, she took off his jacket and shirt gently, examining the rest of his wounds. The rope burns on his legs weren't too bad, but the wrist ones were bleeding and oozing. Yes he was healing faster than normal people, but the injuries were beginning to look infected, so she cleaned them and bandaged him up. Sasuke didn't even seem to notice the tattoo on Naruto's stomach, his eyes on Naruto's face. Once she was satisfied with his treatment, Tsunade carried him to a spare room, and gently placed him on the bed.

'He'll be fine, physically.' She said softly, before rounding on Sasuke. 'What the hell happened?'

'I…I don't know…I just found him and…and he…and…' Sasuke couldn't get the words out. All he could do was stare at Naruto and wonder if things would have been different if he'd got there sooner, or if he'd walked Naruto home. He felt like this was all his fault, he had known something was wrong, why had he been so cold?

Tsunade's glare turned into a frown as she watched Sasuke stumble to Naruto's side, and collapse on the floor next to the bed. He reached out and took hold of Naruto's hand with his. He buried his face in the bed sheets, swearing he wouldn't let this, whatever this was, happen again. Tsunade left them there, but didn't go to sleep. She began writing letters, and tying them to the feet of her birds, sending them out into the night with messages inscribed on little scrolls. Something bad was happening, and she was damn well going to get to the bottom of it.

Even in his dreams, Naruto was tormented. He dreamt of monsters chasing him, of being torn apart by them, foreign hands molesting him, violating him, faces laughing and jeering, until he woke up screaming.

Sasuke jerked awake, and held Naruto's face in his hands, hushing him. Naruto struggled at first, confused, but then calmed down, staring into those dark onyx eyes. Nothing hurt as much as when he'd passed out, and though he was in a strange, unfamiliar room, all he could think about was how welcome and safe the hands holding his face felt.

'Sasuke…I…'

'Baka.' Sasuke said softly. 'Stop scaring me.' Naruto couldn't help smiling. The sharp edged, cold hearted, distant Sasuke was…being gentle. Then quite unexpectedly, Naruto was pulled into a hug. It was soft, warm, and that honeysuckle scent filled his nose, as he buried his face in the dark locks of hair. There was an edge to it, the tang of sweat, but that barely bothered Naruto, he was so used to that smell. He figured he could get used to this as well.

 _Hold on…_

Naruto stiffened. This had to be some kind of trick. And even if it wasn't, just what the hell were these feelings doing? These were the feelings he had always thought would come when he…but that was impossible.

Sasuke noticed Naruto stiffen, and reluctantly broke away from the hug, not realising Naruto was also reluctant.

'What happened?' Sasuke wouldn't let Naruto look away, and held his gaze. So Naruto shut his eyes, thinking that if he couldn't see Sasuke's look, he wouldn't have to try and fight against it. Sasuke stared blankly at the blonde. Well, sure, that was one way of dealing with it, but that was not what he had expected. His stare could pull information out of most people, so to have someone just shut their eyes…

It was a sad thing that Naruto didn't re-open them, because an honest smile, not a smirk, or grimace, appeared on Sasuke's face, as he shook his head in exasperation. But it was only there for a second, and then dark concern, and a frown re-appeared. Sasuke let Naruto go, and clambered up so he stood beside the bed. The blonde opened one eye experimentally, and then the other when he saw that Sasuke was looking away.

'I'm going to find Tsunade.'

'Tsunade? Why's she here?'

'Baka, we're in her house.'

Naruto paled. He did not fancy explaining all this to Tsunade. As Sasuke left, Naruto found himself facing a dilemma. He didn't fancy being around when Tsunade came in. She would grill him for sure. But then he didn't want to leave without thanking her, he thought, as he examined his well-treated wounds. Really he just wanted to get out of here, go somewhere far away for a while… however there was the problem of that ninja. He didn't feel safe just…walking out on his own. He really did not want to deal with this. Naruto stood up, and wandered over to the window, contemplating fleeing. His injuries were mostly healed, and barely hurting at all. As he reached the window he heard someone behind him, and whipped around guiltily.

'Going somewhere?' Tsunade was there, though there was no sign of Sasuke. The Hokage walked in and shut the door, sitting down on the edge of the bed, and motioning for Naruto to join her. He was about to refuse, but then realised that what he was wearing was not great for going off on a run, so he sat down next to her. She took one of his hands in hers, and undid the bandage. The wrist looked like it had never been hurt. She nodded, satisfied, and turned to look at Naruto.

'I know you. You won't tell me what happened. But you have to tell someone. Please.'

'Like who?' Naruto laughed, but his heart wasn't in it.

'Like the headless chicken in my living room.' She nodded to the door. Naruto got up and opened it slightly, and saw Sasuke, now in his usual attire, pacing back and forth in the living room. He kept adjusting his forehead band repeatedly, smoothing his hair back only to ruffle it up again, and then smooth it again. Naruto watched, surprised, not understanding what he was seeing. Tsunade appeared behind him, and watched as well.

'I think you have a mother hen over there.'

'What's with all the chicken analogies?' Naruto retorted.

'I'm hungry. So sue me.' She pushed him out the door and into the living room. 'Your clothes have been washed, they're in the back room. Go, shoo. I have a lot of things to do, and didn't get much sleep last night.'

Sasuke turned and stared at the two of them, a mask of nonchalance on his face.

'Tsunade I…' Naruto began. The woman turned, and raised an eyebrow. 'Thanks I guess.' He gave her a weak grin and scratched the back of his head. She nodded, and turned away, disappearing into the depths of her home. Naruto looked at the impassive Sasuke, and shrugged, smiling awkwardly, before going and getting changed. It felt both good and bad to be back in his usual clothes. 'We should probably go.' Naruto said, and Sasuke 'hn'd in agreement. 'OH DAMN, THE OLD LADY!' Naruto sprinted out and down the street.

'Hey, HEY BAKA!' Sasuke yelled, cursing, and running after him. They both arrived at the house, where Kakashi was waiting for them. They both began to try and explain at the same time, but their teacher held up his hand.

'Tsunade told me. Don't worry, go ahead. You've only got three or four hours to make up for.' Naruto gaped disbelievingly at him while Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow, then both grumbled their way into the still jungle-like garden.

They worked closely, Sasuke keeping an eye on Naruto, and Naruto staying in the safe vicinity of wherever Sasuke went. The blonde wanted to explain, but couldn't find the words. They delved through the undergrowth, and Naruto thought over and over of what to say, until finally he thought he could explain without really having to explain.

'Sasuke…last night…' the raven turned to him. 'I just…wanted to explain…' suddenly the old lady appeared out of nowhere.

'Ah, you, the dark haired one, come come, I have a special job for you, and you too blondey. You.' She pointed at Sasuke. 'Go ahead and meet me by my back door.' Sasuke looked at Naruto, reluctant to leave him. He had been about to hear what had happened, but the old lady was grinning blithely. He slumped, and shoved his hands in his pockets, stomping away. The minute he was out of range, the old woman turned on Naruto, her pleasant smile disintegrating into a snarling scowl. 'You think if you pretend, we won't notice, and we'll all treat you like a normal human being don't you.' She hissed. 'Well, if you really care, you won't breath a word of what's happening to you to anyone. If you drag others into this, they'll only get hurt. Monster.' She spat on the ground by Naruto. 'That young Uchiha is so nice.' She turned and began to walk away. 'If something were to happen to him…you know whose fault _that_ would be. Don't you.' As she disappeared, Naruto stared after her. Had she just threatened…was she…and how did she…? He began to think he had imagined it all, but then a brick smashed into his arm, making him to yelp with pain. It had been thrown very forcefully, and his arm was in agony. He stared at the brick. It had a message on it, tied on with string. It bore two simple words. "Tell Nobody." There was a heart drawn on it. Naruto felt sick to his stomach. Looking around in a panic, he couldn't see anyone. He grabbed the note, and shoved it in a puddle, destroying the words, and stuffed the damp remains into a pocket. His arm hurt like hell, but he couldn't have cared less. He attacked the weeds, pulling out root after root with his good arm, until the corner he was working on was pristine, and clear. He had made more progress in just a few hours than in the past two days put together.

Sasuke returned soon after midday, and stared at how much Naruto had done. Clearly his teammate was feeling better.

'Hey, baka, why the sudden rush?' Naruto shrugged, but refused to look at him. 'Were you planning on making this much of a mess?' He said, trying to get a rise out of the blonde, but there was no response. He sighed, and tried the more direct approach. Kneeling down next to Naruto, and helping work on the wall in front of them, he asked 'what were you about to tell me?'

'Just…thanks.'

Sasuke stared at this drastically changed Naruto. 'No, you were going to explain actually.' He wasn't going to let Naruto get away from this. Not yet.

'No I wasn't. Why don't you just go and flirt with Sakura like a normal person.' Naruto had meant it as an insult to himself, but Sasuke understood it differently. All that closeness they had shared. All of it meant nothing.

'Fine. Like I'd want to be around you anyway.' He spat, and Naruto flinched. Sasuke stormed off deeper into the rest of the garden, and Naruto cursed, and punched the wall as hard as he could, breaking some of the bricks. He hated this. When would this all just end?

That day they managed to turn the old ladies garden back into a sensible garden, and Sasuke was about to go home, when Kakashi took him aside.

'Sasuke, I need you to…take Naruto home. Make sure he gets there safely. Please.'

'Even if I wanted to, which I don't,' Sasuke scowled, 'how would he get in? His front door will be locked.'

'Tsunade found his keys, and put them in his trouser pockets. He most likely won't even realise. So make sure to get him home safe.' Sasuke kicked the ground. 'I mean it.' Kakashi said, sternly. Sasuke glared at his sensei, before going and grabbing Naruto, to drag him home. Naruto freed himself from Sasuke, and frowned.

'What are you doing?'

'Walking you home, baka.' Naruto frowned at him, but followed as Sasuke walked ahead.

Neither spoke after that, until they were halfway home, and finally Naruto could take no more of the silence.

'Why are you doing this, since you clearly would rather be anywhere else.'

'When did I say I had a choice.' Sasuke responded sulkily. Naruto stopped, and stared at Sasuke, until he stopped as well. 'Idiot, come on, I want to go home.'

'I'm not a baby, I don't need to be walked home.' Naruto retorted.

'Apparently you do.' Sasuke growled back.

'I didn't ASK YOU TO so LEAVE ME ALONE.' Naruto yelled, the sadness and loss he felt turning into anger.

'I WOULD IF YOU DIDN'T KEEP GETTING YOURSELF INTO DANGEROUS SITUATIONS. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?' Sasuke shouted, 'FALLING OUT OF TREES, AND DOING GOD KNOWS WHAT IN YOUR-'

'I. DIDN'T. FALL.'

'WELL THEN WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?'

Naruto was about to respond, when he remembered the note, and his words died in his throat. He turned away, clenching his teeth. 'Nothing.'

Sasuke stared in disbelief at Naruto. Whatever the hell was going on, he was tired of playing games. 'Naruto, you TELL ME RIGHT NOW or I am walking away, and…and…' Sasuke tried to think of an adequate threat, but couldn't finish his sentence. Naruto stared at Sasuke miserably.

'I'm never ever going to tell you.' He said, his eyes tearing up. But Sasuke only heard his words, and scowled, turning his back.

'Then walk yourself home.' He stomped off down the road, a good distance away from Naruto, and round the corner, but that was it, he couldn't force himself to go any further. He kicked at a wall, and then on impulse, clambered up the house, to sit on the roof. From where he was he saw Naruto standing there, just standing there. He couldn't see the tears pouring down his face, but he did see a group of adult ninjas approaching. They pushed Naruto aside, but then one turned, and looked at Naruto, motioning for the others to come back. _What the hell?_ He wondered.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys, just an additional note, I'm doing a four day challenge, one chapter every day, the final one being on Christmas day, Christmas sasunaru special! If you like my work, please check it out! Now on to the next chapter!

Chapter4

Naruto was engulfed by despair as he watched Sasuke walk away. Tears spilled down his cheeks, he felt like he'd just had something ripped out of him. Even his arm was now only a dull ache in comparison. He barely noticed the four ninjas walk past him, even though one shoved him aside. He did however see one stop, and turn to look at him.

'Hey…guys…it's the demon child.' He jeered, and the others turned, and laughed, as the leader motioned for the others to come back. They all surrounded him, and began picking up rocks, and throwing them at him, and shoving him from person to person. Naruto shielded his face with his arms, but glared defiantly at them.

'Aaaw, the baby demon doesn't like that,' one mocked, grabbing Naruto, and holding him with his arms pinned back. 'Hey, hey Damako, take your best shot.' He laughed sadistically, and the leader began beating Naruto up, punching him in the face and chest, until blood ran down his chin. They all laughed as Naruto cringed, but still scowled at them. But then the one called Damako had his laugh cut off midway as a foot smashed into his face.

'Why you little-' Naruto grinned up at the man.

'Like I couldn't take you on easy.'

'Grab his leg.' Damako snarled, and one of the group grabbed an ankle, despite Naruto struggling. He almost got free, but then Damako slammed down on the leg, and there was a gruesome crunching snapping sound. Naruto gasped out, unable to breathe for a moment, and then crumpled in agony. As he hit the floor, he heard the laughter and jeering cut off with grunting noises, and peered up to see Sasuke taking them all down, one by one, and standing in a defence pose between them and Naruto.

'This ain't your fight.' Damako said, spitting blood out of his mouth.

'Yeah it is, he's my team mate.' Sasuke showed no emotion, and had a calculating look on his face, as if he was working out how to disable them all. The others backed away, but Damako stayed where he was.

'Anyone who gets involved gets hurt kid, you protect him, one day you won't wake up.'

'Is that a threat?' Sasuke smirked and raised an eyebrow.

'We know things.' Damako spat, 'Something's coming, it'll get him, and it'll get you too if you stand in the way.' He turned to look at Naruto. 'You know what, you know who, he'll get you after this, you just wait. Freak.' With that he turned and ran away with his gang.

Sasuke turned to Naruto, and tried to help him up, but Naruto cried out in pain as he tried to use his leg.

'Damn,' Sasuke cursed. 'we need to get you to Tsunade.'

'No, no you have to go.' Naruto was pale, and there was a panicked edge to his voice.

'Naruto…'

'NO, I'll heal, it's…it's not broken, I'll be fine, you need to stay away-'

'So that's it.' Sasuke knelt down next to Naruto and locked eyes with him. 'Some bastards have convinced you that anyone who gets near you will get hurt.'

'No, that's…I mean…sort of but…' Naruto stumbled over his words, but his excuses died away as he saw Sasuke's eyes clear, and a small smile tug at his mouth. Right then Naruto couldn't care less about his leg, and couldn't help smiling shyly back, which only made Sasuke grin more. Sure, his grin was tiny compared to most peoples, and it kind of looked like a smirk, but his eyes were so…gentle. Naruto shook his head, trying to de-cloud his thoughts. Sasuke picked him up, bridal style, Naruto cringing against the pain, but letting Sasuke carry him through the empty streets, lit by the warm glow of the sunset, lengthening the shadows. They got to Tsunade's front garden, and she was sitting on a garden bench, reading some scrolls. As they opened the creaky gate, she looked up.

'Oh for goodness sake, not again.' She seemed exasperated, but couldn't help the anxious tone out of her voice entirely.

'I only got beat up this time.' Naruto grinned sheepishly, holding out a thumbs up.

'His leg's broken.'

'No it's not.'

'I bet you it is.'

'When you two have quite finished.' Tsunade folded her arms, and the two boys avoided her gaze. She led them into the living room, and Sasuke noticed the sofa had no bloodstains on it anymore. He set Naruto down on it, and Tsunade examined his leg as he hissed with pain. 'Fractured. I'll need a splint. Sasuke, the blue cupboard, splint and bandages, now.' Sasuke obediently did as he was told, and Tsunade took the opportunity to furtively whisper to Naruto. 'I need to splint it now, before you heal up. It isn't just fractured, it's broken, and the bone is out of place. I know you heal fast, so we need to set the bone so you don't heal crooked. It's fine, it's not too bad right now, but it will be if I don't do this. And look, I know you won't tell me what's going on but for goodness sake tell him.' She leant back as Sasuke returned with the splint and bandages.

Once Naruto was treated, Tsunade told them both to wait there, and she would bring them dinner, as Naruto wasn't going anywhere. After she left the room, Naruto and Sasuke sat in awkward silence for a while. Just as Sasuke was about to ask Naruto if he hated him, Naruto spoke.

'You…you don't have to babysit me you know.' He seemed sad. 'I'm with Tsunade. If…if you hate me, you don't have to be around me.'

'Like I could hate you, baka.' Sasuke responded, smirking. 'Forget what they said. I'm with you for the long haul.'

Naruto smiled, but then his smile faded away.

'You heard them though.' He whispered. Sasuke frowned, and was about to reply when Naruto scowled at him. 'Just stay away from me, I don't need you getting involved.' Sasuke raised an eyebrow, and Naruto's scowl faltered. 'What? If the wind blows right your face will stay like that, bastard.'

'And if you really want to push me away, you're doing a pathetic job.'

Naruto's face collapsed into misery, and Sasuke's heart fluttered. He knelt down beside Naruto, and took his face in his hands.

'Naruto, please, just tell me what's going on. Please.' His detached lofty manner was gone, and concern burned in his eyes. 'Let me help.'

Naruto collapsed into tears. Sobbing into Sasuke's chest as everything overwhelmed him. He just wanted to keep Sasuke safe, but he had to tell someone, or he'd just shrivel up and die, he was sure.

'I don't…I don't know who he is…but he…when I was in the tree…and…and at my flat…he…he…' Naruto couldn't get the words out, but Sasuke wrapped his arms around the blonde, cocooning him, creating a warm, safe place, brushing his lips against his team mates hair, until Naruto's breathing evened out, and he whispered 'he raped me.'

Anger, burning like fire, shot through Sasuke, and he stiffened. His eyes widened, and a snarl appeared on his face. He couldn't believe anyone would dare…how could they do that to Naruto? He wanted to find them, and destroy them, one limb at a time, but Tsunade walked in right then. She took one look at Sasuke before making a decision, and sitting down opposite the two. Naruto sniffed, and peered out from his cradle in Sasuke's arms, whilst Sasuke shook with rage, and tried to remain calm.

'At this point, can I assume Sasuke knows what happened to you that night?' They both nodded. 'It'll be no surprise to you that I know what happened; I treated your wounds Naruto. Also Sasuke please stop holding him like that, you'll twist his leg. I need it to stay still for a while.' Sasuke reluctantly released Naruto, who was also resistant to end the hug, but Tsunade just carried on talking. 'Something is happening; we thought it was just one person, but from what we can tell, a lot of people seem to be involved. Their leader is the one who…who did what he did to you, Naruto. We need you two to stay together. Right now Naruto is weak, but together…well lets just say I think you two make one hell of a team.'

For the rest of the evening Naruto and Sasuke stayed in Tsunade's living room, whilst Naruto's leg settled. By nightfall Naruto was able to move his leg, so they shifted to the spare room they had used last time, Naruto carefully sitting up on the bed. Sasuke was glad of the rest, but the blonde seemed twitchy, wanting to do something, _anything_ rather than sit there relaxing. Sasuke found a game in one of the cupboards, and tried to interest Naruto in playing but he seemed distracted, and paid little attention. As it got late, Sasuke got tired and rested his head on the bed, sitting in a chair next to it, giving up on engaging Naruto in games, and just wanting to go to sleep.

'You're being stupid, teme.' Naruto said, shoving at Sasuke. 'You won't get to sleep like that. This _is_ a double bed.'

Sasuke looked at Naruto, and managed not to blush. But only just. He briefly thought of refusing, but a very loud part of his head trod on that thought and yelled at him to accept or die. So naturally he had to accept.

'Fine baka, but don't steal the duvet.'

Naruto smiled as he slid over to let Sasuke join him, and took off his jacket. Sasuke also undressed, but unlike Naruto, who wore shorts and a T-shirt, the raven wore only his boxers. It was Naruto's turn to blush as he stared at Sasuke's pale, thin, yet toned torso. He hardly knew where to look, so he rolled over, facing the wall. He felt Sasuke slip into the bed beside him, and turn the light out. In the darkness, all Naruto could hear was his team mates even breathing, and his own jerkier breathing. Sasuke noticed the difference too, and rolled over.

'Hey, baka, you probably shouldn't be lying on that leg. Lie on your back idiot.' Naruto obeyed, and rolled onto his back, but his breathing only quickened as he felt Sasuke's warm breath on his neck. Fortunately Sasuke was now too distracted by Naruto's face being closer to his. He had expected the idiot to refuse to turn over, so now that he was facing him, he didn't really know what to do. He wanted to lean into the crook of Naruto's neck, and feel it, and…suddenly he blushed, thanking the world for it being so dark. What he wanted, was to lick Naruto's neck.

 _Welp, that's it, I'm perverted. Naruto admits to *that* and all I can think of is wanting to lick him. And kiss him, which is more normal, but also no. I mean…okay, so I knew I liked guys not girls a reeeaaally long time ago, but…but this is Naruto. This is Baka-head._

 _…Okay fine, so I like him, he is clearly not interested, and I've just gained his trust, licking him would probably freak him out, lose his trust, push him away, and…and…god knows what. He'd probably even try to run on that leg. Damn I should have got there faster. If I can't even protect Naruto, why the hell do I deserve to mean anything more to him than a rival? Do I even deserve the right to be a friend?_

Naruto was also having an internal monologue, but it went more along the lines of:

 _OHMYGOSHHE'SSOCLOSE…I COULD JUST…ROLL OVER…AND MAYBE WE'D ACCIDENTALLY KISS AGAIN…THAT WOULD BE AWESOME…WAIT, WAIT NO IT WOULDN'T, THAT WOULD BE BAD, VERY BAD. But…why? WHY DO I EVEN HAVE TO ASK WHY? I mean, sure I like the idea of kissing him, but one: no, two: no no no, three: After what just happened, I do NOT want to lose him, four: NO NO NO NO NO._

In the end, they both were so deep in their own heads that they fell asleep without noticing the others body language. Naruto did, however, reach out in his sleep, searching for Sasuke's hand, and once they touched, Sasuke willingly held onto Naruto, drifting together in the ocean of sleep like two sea otters holding onto each other so they don't float away from one another. *[ **turn this into a footnote later** **à** ](That is an actual fact, no seriously, look it up, it's adorable).

The next day, Sasuke was the first to wake up, and was about to roll over and stretch, when he noticed that his hand was entwined with Naruto's. Also his hair. The blonde, in the night, had rolled onto his side, and buried his right hand in Sasuke's hair. Sasuke frowned; he kind of needed the loo. Carefully he tried to de-tangle himself, but Naruto only latched tighter.

'Baka.' Sasuke said, nudging Naruto. 'Hey baka, wake up.'

'Smur soy soys…' he muttered.

'What?'

'F'the ramn…'

'…Naruto, I am not ramen, let me go.'

'Swot you'd say f'you were ramn…'

Sasuke stared at Naruto, and untangled their hands, before poking Naruto in the forehead. 'Baka.'

'Ow!' Naruto opened his eyes and glared. 'What was that for?'

'I need the loo.'

'So go?'

'I can't.' Sasuke motioned to Naruto's hand, which was buried in the dark raven hair. Naruto turned red, and tried to extract his hand, at first only making it worse, causing Sasuke to cringe, but eventually setting the raven free. Naruto watched Sasuke get up and go, and buried his face in the pillow. That was awful. Of course he had to do that in his sleep. That wasn't weird at all. Whilst he lay there, face down, cringing at his actions, Sasuke returned, and stared, smiling at Naruto. He could hear muffled moans and curses. It was kind of adorable. He padded over to Naruto, and gently placed a hand on the boys back, intending to gently jostle him into looking at him, but the reaction he got was far from what he planned. Naruto screamed, and rolled off the bed, landing, and yelping as he bashed his leg, and he began crawling to the window, his breathing loud and panicked.

'Hey, hey Naruto! Wait!' Sasuke cursed himself, and ran over to Naruto, holding the blonde by the shoulders. He was pale as a sheet, and had broken into a cold sweat again. Sasuke tried to hold him, and make him look into his eyes, but Naruto struggled weakly, and began to cry, his quiet sobs breaking Sasuke's heart. His eyes wouldn't focus, and he kept whispering 'no, no, please, no, please, not again please…' Sasuke couldn't shake Naruto out of it, so he yelled for Tsunade, still holding Naruto still. The Hokage appeared in the doorway, and rushed over to Naruto.

'Naruto? Naruto listen to me, it's Tsunade, Naruto snap out of it.' She grabbed Naruto's face and made him look into her eyes, but he wouldn't focus on her, his eyes distant, clouded by something they couldn't see. 'Sasuke keep him here.' She commanded, and hurried out of the room. The raven held onto Naruto, cradling him, and trying to break whatever cage Naruto was in, until Tsunade returned with a jug. She doused Naruto in cold water, causing him to splutter, and yelp, and break free of the bonds his mind had made. Or at least that's what they thought. The blonde panted, head down, for a while, then turned to look at Tsunade. His eyes had turned red. A snarl quivered on his lips, and he broke free of Sasuke, leaping at Tsunade, hands making Jitsu symbols, before sending a wall of fire at the woman. She summoned a shield, which just burnt away, but then cast a Jitsu of her own, and a wind sprang up, knocking Naruto to the floor. Sasuke watched, completely lost, as Naruto jumped back up, and started throwing punches at the Hokage, who dodged as many as she could, but Naruto was faster and more vicious than ever. With a flick of her hand, Tsunade sent something small and metallic, which resembled a needle, at Naruto, but he blasted it away with fire, fire that Sasuke realised was coming from his mouth. Naruto crouched, and a tail of chakra formed behind him, whipping at Tsunade, who tried to shield herself, but missed the last flick, and was sent flying backwards into a wall with such force that the wall crumbled away behind her. Sasuke didn't understand what was going on, but he realised that this wasn't Naruto, something was horribly wrong. As the stanger using his friend's body advanced on Tsunade, Sasuke dived at him, and pulled him down. The flicking tail burnt Sasuke's arms, but he refused to let go.

'Baka, BAKA COME BACK.' He screamed, and a pair of red eyes turned on him. Fear shot through his body, this really wasn't Naruto, what the hell was going on? The face snarled at him, pointed teeth bared, and the tail came lashing towards him, and he only had time to yell out 'GIVE ME BACK MY NARUTO!'

He scrunched up his eyes, and felt heat on his face, and flinched slightly. He waited for the stinging pain, for the burning, but nothing happened. Experimentally he opened an eye, and saw the tail's tip right in front of his eyes. Seconds passed slowly, and the tail retreated and shrank, and Naruto's face softened, and he sagged. Sasuke caught the slumping Naruto, whose eyes faded back into their soft ocean blue, before closing. Dumbstruck, Sasuke could only hold Naruto and shake, his mind reeling from what had just happened. He pulled Naruto closer, and cradled the boy, stroking his blonde hair absently, and rocking back and forth. Tsunade levered herself up, and sat, leaning against what was left of the wall.

'I think it's time we talked, Sasuke.'

'I…I don't know…I've never seen him like…I mean I have…but I haven't…'

'No. I mean I think…to put it another way, I think it's time I explained something to you. Something about Naruto.'


	5. Chapter 5

Sasuke sat on the sofa, Naruto passed out lying down next to him, with his head on his lap. He looked so fragile, and Sasuke just had to protect him, but if he couldn't even stop bad things happening to him from the outside world, how the hell could he protect Naruto from something inside of him?

Tsunade poured them each a cup of green tea, but Sasuke ignored it, and just watched Naruto sleep. Tsunade sighed. This was going to be difficult.

'Sasuke…you remember that story from years ago, of the nine tailed demon, the one who attacked the village? Many people lost their lives in that fight, including…well, including the Hokage at the time. Naruto was just a baby. But the Hokage found a way to seal off the demon, and protect the village. He sealed it inside…Naruto. The creature cannot escape but…it can…show its powers. Sasuke, if you lift Naruto's shirt up, you will see the seal on his belly.'

Sasuke stared at her, he could hardly believe what he was hearing, but he lifted the shirt up anyway. He stared at the strange symbols and circular tattoos. It made no sense, and yet it did.

'This is why they call him monster and demon, isn't it.' He growled.

'Yes.'

'BUT HE'S NOT, HE NEVER EVEN…HE'S NARUTO!' Sasuke couldn't help yelling. How could the entire village be so blinded by hate?

'As I said, the demon cannot get out, but when Naruto's emotions run high, the demon's powers show themselves. The red eyes and the chakra tail were symbols of that power. Earlier, he was still Naruto, he was just consumed by fear, which the demon turned into anger.'

'He lives every day…does he even know?'

'Yes he knows.'

'And he just…lives with it. Laughs, and smiles, and is so determined, despite knowing there's a monster inside of him, and he never loses control for more than a few minutes…' tears ran down Sasuke's face, tears of sadness, but also of anger. He gritted his teeth, and turned with a determined stare to look at Tsunade. 'I will NEVER leave him, I will NEVER hate him, I will stay by his side as long as he lets me, demon or no demon, he is Naruto. And always will be to me.' Tsunade met his stare, and knew he meant it. They held each others gaze for a while, until a small voice whispered from Sasuke's lap.

'Do you mean it?' Sasuke looked down at Naruto, whose blue eyes were full of hope.

'Yes, Dobe. Of course I do.'

A smile lit up Naruto's face, and turned into a grin as he hugged Sasuke.

'Hey, do I smell cake?' came the muffled voice from Sasuke's chest.

'Baka.' Sasuke smiled, as Tsunade went and got the cake out of the kitchen. 'I swear sometimes your stomach is sentient.' Sasuke regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth, and mentally slapped himself as Naruto hid his face. 'Your stomach, not your belly.' He clarified, and Naruto peeked out cautiously. 'I meant what I said. I'll always see you as you.'

Naruto smiled, but a bit if his head couldn't help thinking _not if you knew how I felt about you._

They ate their cake, and Tsunade unwrapped his leg, which had fully healed. Sasuke didn't think he would be surprised by anything anymore, so when Tsunade explained that the demon's powers were what helped Naruto heal faster, he just shrugged as if it were obvious.

'Now, I'm going to take you both out of missions for a while-' Tsunade began, but was interrupted by an outraged Naruto.

'WHAT? NO!'

'Look, something's happening that you can't even begin to understand right-'

'Things have ALWAYS been this way!' Naruto said, angrily.

'No they have not.' Tsunade slammed her fist down on the table, cracking it. 'You are being dense Naruto; you are not the only one at risk here. What do you think has been going on? Do you have any idea of how many people are involved? There are some who are waist deep in this and don't even realise what the ultimate plan is! Those people would never voluntarily be in this plan, but their hate for you is clouding their senses. There is something dark at work here. We're only just scratching the surface and before you interrupt me again you CAN'T go on missions because you not only endanger yourself and your team, but the whole village.' She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath to calm herself, whilst Naruto looked down, clenching his fists.

'If you accept missions, your team will be targeted. You may be captured. What will happen to you is too terrible for words, you won't be you anymore. And that's where the danger starts.' She looked at Naruto with sad eyes. 'Once you are no longer you, there is no telling what will happen to the demon inside of you.' She got up and went over to them, kneeling down beside the boys, and cupping Naruto's face, turning it to her. 'You are more than a brave boy, you are freedom incarnate, you are cheerful, but you are rebellious, you have so much hate thrown at you, and yet you are still everything a boy your age should be and more. You can still smile and laugh, and you have hopes and dreams, you have the highest goal imaginable, and I doubt if you achieve it that you'll stop there. Instead of crumbling to the voice inside you, you shout back, you say 'no, no I will make these people see me' and you live. Do you have any idea what will happen to us if that changes? I am so sorry Naruto, no one your age should have this much pressure, but…you are who you are, and that is a miracle. If you stop being you…' she turned to Sasuke and held his hand. 'You have seen him; you saw what happened when he vanished into himself. Imagine that, but over a thousand times worse. A demon given a body to play with, and given another way of life, an opportunity to live free, and destroy whatever it wants. That is the choice we are facing.' She looked at both boys, and held both their hands in hers. 'What I see in the both of you is defiance. I don't know how much more I can explain, but that defiance is like a burning light in the dark. Now is a time to gather friends. To gather allies. Not for a fight against a monster, but for the worst fight of all, a fight to remain who you are in even the darkest of times. A fight to keep hope burning bright even when there is no one by your side. Something to remind you there are those around you who will keep fighting for you, keep searching for you, even if you feel lost beyond belief.' She released them and got up. 'I need you to find friends, gather them. True friends. All the young Genin are off of missions. Use this time to go to them, make friends. Build a giant team, one that can defeat anything thrown at them. You can't imagine how important that is. Now go. I have work that needs taking care of. I believe the Ramen shop owner is aware of what happened, and has a free bowl of ramen waiting for you.'

'OH YEAH!' Naruto yelled, his serious expression disappearing as he leapt up, and virtually ran to get dressed. Sasuke watched him, and shook his head, smirking. Only the baka would be able to swing back to cheerful after that. He turned back to Tsunade.

'I'll look after him.'

'Sure.' She had a smug smile that Sasuke didn't understand, but he ignored it. What her smile _meant_ was that she thought Naruto would probably do Sasuke as much good as vice versa. The Uchiha kid had been miserable for so long, and emotionless for even longer. Naruto had broken that. And she thought this would be interesting to watch.

Naruto was stumbling around, getting dressed, grinning and thinking of the ramen, but in his heart, he felt worried. He realised why Tsunade hadn't wanted to tell him, and understood why she was still keeping some things from him. But he felt like the weight on his shoulders had got heavier. He had no one to share it with, he was completely alone. As his smile faltered, he felt suddenly weak, and fell over, legs tangled in his trousers. Seconds later, someone was by his side, helping him up.

'Honestly, do I have to help you with everything?' Sasuke muttered, smirking as he helped Naruto up. _Or maybe not alone._ He grinned up at Sasuke.

'You have to try proper ramen! Not the packet kind, the one from the Ramen shop! ITS AMAZING!' Sasuke winced slightly as Naruto shouted in his ear, but laughed, helping Naruto up.

'Hey!' Naruto beamed. 'You laughed!'

Sasuke's face looked as if someone had slapped him. 'No I did not.'

'Yes you did! I heard the Uchiha laugh!' Naruto said in a singsong voice.

Sasuke was about to deny it again, but then saw how cheerful Naruto was, and couldn't help the small smile tugging at his mouth. 'Baka. Anyone would laugh watching you get dressed.'

'Come on! I need to take you for ramen!' Naruto sang, grabbing Sasuke, and pulling him out of the house, and down the road to the ramen shop. If many people had been about, they would have seen Naruto grinning determinedly, speeding to the shop, whilst dragging an exasperated looking Uchiha. When they got there, Teuchi, the owner of the shop, waved to them, and greeted Naruto warmly.

'Hey there, who've you brought along?' He said, preparing the ramen.

'This is Sasuke, he's NEVER had PROPER RAMEN before!' Naruto looked personally insulted, and Teuchi laughed, and began preparing a second bowl.

'Then it's my duty to give him a free bowl I guess. Oh, Naruto, yours is free as well-'

'Tsunade told me!' Naruto beamed as he took his usual seat, and Sasuke sat down awkwardly beside him.

The older man chuckled. 'Word gets round fast. So Naruto, what'll it be?'

'The beef, tomato and pak choi one!' Naruto nodded at Sasuke. 'What meat and veg do you like?'

'I don't like beef.' Sasuke said, impassive as ever.

'Salmon.' Naruto said, nodding his head. 'He'll like the salmon, green beans and lemon one.'

'At what point did I say-' Sasuke began, but Naruto interrupted.

'You always make yourself salmon sushi, or salmon and rice dishes, and you made a load of some sort of chicken and green bean dish for the mission we went to the next village for.'

Sasuke stared at Naruto. He hadn't realised Naruto had paid so much attention. He felt flattered, but also nervous. Maybe if Naruto kept paying attention, he'd notice Sasuke's behaviour…

Whilst Sasuke worried over his crush, Naruto chatted to Teuchi, and cheered when he got his ramen. Other customers came and went, but Naruto and Sasuke were in a world of their own, which Teuchi had temporarily entered. By the time Sasuke had finished his, now that he admitted it, delicious first bowl, Naruto was finishing his third.

'More Ramen!' He cried, in unison with someone sitting not far from them. The two turned to face each other. The other boy was short and chubby, but had a friendly, if confused, expression.

'You're that Uzumaki kid, aren't you?' He asked, and Sasuke bristled, waiting for the attack.

'Yeah, you were in my class right? Aki…Ami…Aku…'

'Akimichi. But Chouji is fine. Team 10!' He grinned. 'We got Shikamaru and Ino in our team, it's the best.'

Naruto grinned. 'I'm with Sakura and Sasuke in team 7! Aren't Ino and Sakura friends?'

'Hah! More like rivals. All Ino talks about is 'Sakura did this, Sakura did that, I did this better than Sakura, why aren't you guys as good as Sakura's team mates' and she's constantly complaining about Sakura being in the same team as Sasuke.' He looked over, and went red. 'Oh crap, no offense Sasuke, they just…seem obsessed with you is all…' he rubbed at the back of his head awkwardly.

'No, I know.' Sighed Sasuke. He kind of wanted to get angry at Chouji, but Tsunade's words were ringing in his ears, and he realised Naruto had a chance to make friends here. 'They're insane.'

Chouji laughed, and Naruto glared at Sasuke. 'Sakura is not insane.'

'That's because yoouuu liiiike heeeer' Chouji mocked, but in a friendly way. 'I mean what's not to like, Sakura is amazing, she's pretty, and smart, and strong…'

'You only think that because she's not moaning at you or telling you off all the time.' Naruto muttered.

'What?' Chouji looked shocked. 'She does that too? I thought that was just Ino!'

'I guess they're more similar than you thought!' Naruto laughed.

'Yeah, and you're different. I thought you'd be stupid or something, but you're alright Uzumaki.' Chouji grinned, and shifted over to sit next to them.

'Seriously, we were at school together, you can call me Naruto.' Naruto grinned.

Soon the two were eating Ramen and laughing together, complaining about missions, and trying to beat each other in arm wrestles to decide who got the freshest ramen bowl first. Sasuke smiled, watching the friendship being born. It was so nice to see, unlike the usual glares and distance Naruto got. The blonde seemed to be acting like he did this all the time, and made friends on a daily basis, which only made it more incredible to Sasuke. Knowing what he did, he wondered how much he missed from just not paying attention.

As the day wore on, they eventually parted ways, and Naruto was about to walk to his apartment, when he stopped. Fear grew in his belly, and he was suddenly filled with a desire to never ever go back to his apartment again, not after what had happened. He was about to turn and go for a walk to try and get his mind in order, when Sasuke appeared beside him.

'Hey, baka, I need to check my fridge, I think the food I had in there will be dead. It's your fault, so you have to help me. And we'll need to go to the market after and replace what's died.'

He said it so nonchalantly that Naruto didn't realise he was basically asking him over, he just saw it as a sudden miraculous way out of his problem.

'Sure, teme, where do you even live?'

Soon the pair reached the Uchiha estate. It was a considerable size, clearly Sasuke had inherited a lot more than just his Jitsu skills.

'Whoah.' Naruto froze on the threshold, staring in awe at the place. 'And it's all yours?'

'Baka. I only use this one.' Sasuke pointed at one of the buildings to the side.

'ONLY THAT ONE?' Naruto stared, open-mouthed at the house.

'Yeah, the others are for the housekeepers and stuff.' Sasuke remembered Naruto's tiny apartment. 'Look, my family wealth didn't die with my family, it's still going, I have people who keep it going until I'm old enough to take over. Investment or something. Til then it's being looked after, and it keeps all the…staff…employed. They look after the house and grounds. But I don't like all the space, so I only live in this house.'

Naruto pouted.

'Bet you have servants living in your house as well though.'

Sasuke sent a cold stare at Naruto, making him regret his words.

'No. I don't let any of the staff in.' He was on the verge of sending Naruto back, when he caught sight of the blonde's nervous look, and sighed, resigned. 'Look, lets just check the fridge, and then go to the market, kay?'

Naruto nodded, and stuck his hands in his pockets, pouting to the side slightly. The inside of the house wasn't too impressive. It seemed to be made up of a downstairs loo, and a kitchen-living room-dining room. Clearly Sasuke's bedroom and the bathroom were upstairs. Naruto leant against the counter as Sasuke began rummaging through the fridge, taking out the food that had gone off.

'Hey, Baka, make yourself useful and grab a bin bag from the draw.'

'You say that like there's one draw.'

'There are only four drawers.'

'Yeah but how do I know which one?'

Sasuke looked over from the fridge, his eye twitching. 'You look in each one until you find it.'

'Jeez, sorry to wake you from your slumber mister bear.' Naruto grumbled, beginning his search.

'Mister bear? Really?' When Sasuke got no reply, he went back to re-arranging his fridge. He never felt fully satisfied with how it looked, and if he was going to bring home ingredients, there should be at least a shelf's worth of room. With a thud, the roll of bin bags hit his head. He heard a snigger, and shot an icy glare at Naruto. Sometimes he questioned his life choices, and now was one of those times. It was like babysitting a two year old.

'Found them.' Naruto said, struggling not to laugh. Sighing, Sasuke snapped off a bag, and chucked the off food away.

'Come on, we're going to the market.' Sasuke was not looking forward to this trip. That sentiment however began to fade once they left the Uchiha estate. He dumped the bin bag in the bin on the way out of the estate, and felt like he'd released something along with the bin bag. Soon he felt more relaxed, and began to enjoy Naruto's childishness again. He smiled as Naruto boasted about some time or another he had been awesome in a mission. He settled into the flow of mocking, riling, and yet still encouraging Naruto.

The market wasn't too busy, but Sasuke felt the change in atmosphere as if he'd walked into a brick wall. All of a sudden he was more aware of how many people were staring, of the hushed conversations, the sneers, the disapproving tones, it was like walking into a different town. He went to the fresh vegetable stall quickly, grabbing Naruto, and dragging him away from a stall full of shiny metal objects, amidst cries of 'but shiiinyyy thiiiings'. The usually friendly stall owner was cold and stiff as Sasuke chose his items and paid. As they left the protection of the fabric awning, Sasuke was sure he heard the owner mutter to his assistant something that sounded like 'bad influence'.

'OH MY GOD SASUKE!' came not one, but two cries. Sasuke groaned as the pink haired menace and her blond rival appeared, running towards them. The two girls began gushing over Sasuke, and hanging off his arms. He shrugged them off, muttering about his bags already being heavy, but that only led to Ino offering to carry them, which was closely followed by Sakura almost snatching the bag in an attempt to do it first. Sasuke shoved them away, and was about to snap at them, when Naruto re-appeared, his hands behind his head, looking curious.

'Oh, hey Sakura.' He smiled at her, and she shot him a glare.

'Naruto, what are you doing here?'

'I'm helping Sasuke buy food.'

Sasuke scoffed, more like impeding. Unfortunately Sakura picked up on this.

'Naruto, if you're making things more difficult for Sasuke…'

'He's fine.' Sasuke said, impassive as ever. 'He IS helping.'

Both Ino and Sakura looked shocked, but Ino recovered first.

'Hey, maybe we can help too! Naruto, Sakura wanted to buy some herbs, why don't we all go to the herb stall!' She pushed Sakura at Naruto in a barely disguised attempt to get the pinkette away from Sasuke. Just as she was about latch onto Sasuke's free arm, he shifted so that she'd have to squeeze between Naruto and him to be able to cling to the arm. Unfortunately she was not discouraged. She shuffled onto Sasuke's other side, and Saukra fell reluctantly into place next to Naruto.

'So Sasuke,' Ino began, unperturbed, 'Sakura said your last mission was working to clear some old ladies garden.'

'Yeah, she was super nice wasn't she Sasuke?' Sakura chimed in.

'She was an old lady.' Sasuke said, not really seeing where this was going. 'She was just like every other old lady.' Naruto stiffened, remembering how the old lady had warned him. Yes, she was just like every other old lady. It would be no different, they would always treat him like that.

'Sasuke made a lot of progress on his own, when Naruto wasn't bothering him.' Sakura chimed in. 'Naruto onl-y…um….' Sakura faltered at the icy feeling coming from Sasuke.

'Naruto did more on his own in one afternoon than you had the entire day.' Sasuke growled.

'I…guess…' Sakura hung back, looking hurt.

'Hey, Sakura did a lot, Sasuke,' Naruto commented, 'The only reason you think she did less is because she was more focussed. She may not have cleared as much space as we did, but she did it better. The middle of the garden isn't likely to get weeds anytime soon.'

Sakura felt her cheeks flush, she wasn't sure if she liked Naruto sticking up for her or not.

'Hn.' Sasuke grumbled.

'Um…' Ino looked uncertainly between the three. 'You guys are…weird for a team.' Naruto laughed, and began telling her about a mission they'd had where they'd had to chase bandits away from a fishing boat, and about how Sasuke had gone off to try and do it on his own. Sasuke butted in, retaliating with the fact that he only did it because Naruto was planning on doing it first, but then fell asleep.

'That doesn't mean you have to go do it yourself, teme.'

'Hah, so it's fine for you to do, but not for me?'

Despite the argument breaking out, both Ino and Sakura noticed that Sasuke was less bristly than normal. Sakura began to sulk, but Ino caught onto the fact that it was Naruto who was making this difference. Once they got to the herb stall, Ino frowned. She had a decision to make. She could tell Sakura this fact, and risk loosing a head-start with Sasuke by befriending Naruto first, but actually keep Sasuke in this good mood by making Sakura be nicer towards Naruto. However, if she kept it to herself, she would come across better, but Sasuke might be in a worse mood because of how Sakura would treat Naruto. Making a decision, she grabbed Sakura and pulled her aside.

'Look, I don't like telling you this, so don't think I'm doing you any favours, but in case you couldn't tell, Sasuke likes Naruto, and if you're mean to him, you'll only put Sasuke in a bad mood.'

Sakura glared at Ino.

'I KNOW Sasuke likes Naruto. I'm not stupid, I've been in this team for a while now.'

Ino stared dumbstruck at Sakura.

'Then why do you keep being mean to Naruto?'

'I have my own reasons.' Sakura muttered, looking away. Ino couldn't understand, but sighed. Sakura was in a sulk now, there was nothing to be done.

Meanwhile, Sasuke and Naruto were happily browsing the herbs, Sasuke finally becoming number to the chilly looks, and mutterings of passer-by's.

'Baka, do you like coriander?'

'Yeah, why?'

'Dinner? I'm trying to work out what to make us.'

Naruto flushed. Sasuke was inviting him home for dinner? When did that happen? Sasuke meanwhile had relaxed enough that he didn't realise what he was doing, and was talking aloud automatically. A few seconds after he had picked up his chosen bunch of coriander, he glanced at Naruto, and although he was looking away, still looked somewhat awkward. It was then that Sasuke realised what he'd said. He paled, he had just assumed that Naruto would come back with him. Maybe he should actually ask him. But that opened up a can of worms that were immediately dumped straight into his stomach. Well, the baka hadn't complained, so he just had to assume it was alright.

They rejoined Ino and Sakura, and were about to head to the next stall, when Naruto slowed. The world around him shifted, as a buzzing grew in his ears, a buzzing that seemed to be singing almost, in old forgotten voices. He felt like he was about to throw up, and fell to his knees, palms grabbing at the ground for support, and his torso suddenly damp with sweat. Sasuke was too far ahead, and too distracted, as he tried to stand, he slumped sideways, and felt like the world was tilting, trying to slide him across the street. He tried to call out, but nothing came out, and he gasped for air, as bile rose in his throat.

It was Sakura who noticed, and turned, running back, calling out something, but the world was slipping away from him, turning black and sparkly. Arms caught him as he fell, and slid into the black, and the last thing he heard was a familiar voice, he thought it might even have been calling his name.


	6. Chapter 6

Sasuke had dropped his bags, which Ino scooped up, as he ran to where Sakura was holding Naruto. The boy was pale, and drenched in sweat, and when Sasuke knelt beside him, he heard Naruto's breathing; it was shuddering, halting, and coming out in gasps rather than ordinary breaths.

'We have to get him out of here.' Sasuke hissed to the girls, already feeling the crowd growing agitated. Ino picked up the bags Naruto had dropped, and Sasuke began scooping Naruto up, as Sakura held his head and torso up.

'Why not just leave him.' Came a voice from the crowd. Sasuke snarled around, trying to find the source.

'No doctor's going to see him.' Came another voice.

'NOT BRAVE ENOUGH TO COME AND SAY THAT TO MY FACE HUH?' Sasuke yelled, but Sakura dragged him away.

'Shut up, idiot. My house is nearest. Just…come on.' She hauled him away, as he tried to cradle Naruto, and Ino brought up the rear. They reached a house with a small, well kept courtyard, and Sakura fumbled with her keys, before ushering them in. 'My parents won't be home for a while, but we had better use my bedroom just in case.' Leading the way, she took them to an upstairs room, and pulled out a blanket to cover the bed with. They all slumped into the room, and Sasuke carefully laid Naruto down.

'I think he's getting feverish.' His tone was desperate, and so Sakura took charge.

'Ino, go get some towels from the cupboard down the hall, and there will be a bowl under the sink in the bathroom, second door down, go fill it with water, and bring them back here. Then Sasuke, you dip the towels in water, and cool Naruto down. Ino, when you've brought the stuff back here, meet me downstairs. I'm going to try and find something to calm any feverish symptoms, and something for when he wakes up.'

Ino followed Sakura out the room, then whispered 'why aren't you just phoning a doctor?'

'You heard those people,' Sakura said in a hushed tone, 'we don't know any doctor would treat this. We have to make do.' She rushed back downstairs, and Ino carried out her tasks. Sasuke was frowning, looking more and more worried as Naruto deteriorated, and seemed glad of something to do when the water and towels appeared. Reaching the kitchen, Ino found Sakura pulling out things from cupboards.

'That doesn't look like medicine…'

'The medicine is on the counter.' Sakura responded, distractedly, 'there's something about this I don't like, I'm going to Tsunade, I think she'll want to know. Here are some ingredients for a soup for when, well…for if Naruto wakes up before I come back.'

'You do actually care.' Ino leant against the side of the doorframe.

'It's complicated.' Sakura muttered, before leaving. Sighing, Ino picked up the medicine, and went back upstairs.

Naruto became aware that someone was wiping his head gently with something soft and cool. There was a sound in the air, a different sound, a humming, gentle and soothing. He opened his eyes a crack, and the late evening light filtered through the room. His eyes focussed on a figure, who was mopping his brow, and the rhythm of moving from him, to a bowl, and back to him again, was matched perfectly by the tune.

'Why're you helping me?' he said, his voice cracking, as Sakura came into focus.

'Idiot.' She muttered, pausing in her song, but not her movements. 'You should be asking why I'm not always this nice to you.'

Silence fell for a while, and then she started humming again.

'Okay, why?' Naruto gave in, after a while.

'Because you're my rival.' She said simply.

'I don't understand.'

'And that's why you're an idiot.' Her words were harsh, but her motions remained gentle.

'But…why now?'

'You're ill. Someone has to take care of you, and Sasuke needed a rest.'

'Sasuke-' Naruto tried to sit up, but was gently, yet firmly pushed back down.

'Oh no you don't. You're my patient right now.'

Naruto stared up at her, as the light lit up her pink hair, almost as if it was setting it on fire.

'Why do you hate me?'

'What makes you think I hate you?' She mopped his neck, cooling him down.

'You just do…'

'I don't. I told you, you're my rival.'

'And I told you, I don't understand that.'

Sakura rinsed the towel, and paused, looking at him with a strange expression.

'You really have no idea do you.' A small smile played at her lips. 'I'm not going to explain, if you don't know, it's best that you work it out on your own.' She got up, picking the bowl and taking it with her. 'I'll send Sasuke in with fresh water.'

Naruto stared at the ceiling, waiting for something to make sense. Nothing seemed right, maybe he was still asleep. He drifted in a comfortable almost-conscious state, until the door opened again. Sasuke stood in the doorway, he looked pale, paler than usual, worried, strained, but none of this showed in his voice as he said 'Baka, you shouldn't have eaten all that Ramen.'

'Teme.' Naruto responded, as Sasuke came over, and dunked the towel in the water, and much less skilfully began to cool Naruto's hot skin. 'It wasn't the ra-' Naruto coughed, and turned on his side. He felt like retching, his entire body shook, and Sasuke knocked over the bowl as he grabbed Naruto. He was about to shout for help, when he saw Naruto's eyes. They had turned red.

'Naruto?' He asked, cautiously.

'I...no…I won't…' Sasuke held Naruto in his arms, as Naruto seemed to be fighting internally with something. He rocked Naruto back and forth gently, hushing him, before yelling 'TSUNADE.' Footsteps sounded up the stairs, and Tsunade appeared in the doorway, took one look at the situation, and knelt down beside Naruto.

'Naruto, Naruto remember who you are.'

'Who I am…' He mumbled, leaning into Sasuke.

'Who you are. Naruto. You are Naruto.'

'Naru…'

'Naruto.'

'I don't…'

Sasuke interrupted, pulling Naruto's face so that they were looking into each others eyes.

'Baka, you are a baka; you are an idiot, who still needs to help me make dinner. You are Naruto, you haven't beaten me properly yet, we still need a re-match after our last fight, so that I can show you how to use that jitsu properly. Baka don't you dare leave me alone with Sakura.'

Naruto smiled, 'Teme, I could take you on any day…' Blue shot through the red of his eyes, and his breathing returned to normal. 'Tired…' he mumbled, as the last of the red receded, and his eyes drooped shut. Sasuke rested him back on the bed, where he looked more peaceful than he had since he had fallen.

'Tsunade…what's happening?' Sasuke's voice was quiet, but terrified.

'I'd love to be able to tell you, but even I'm not clear on it all yet. Just…stay with him.' She checked Naruto over, and then went back downstairs, returning to Sakura's parents, who she had been giving an excuse for the current situation to.

The last of the light was leaving the sky, and Ino had gone home, but Sakura's parents had said that Naruto and Sasuke could stay in Sakura's room for the night. Sasuke welcomed the fact that he did not somehow have to get Naruto back to his. He slept fitfully on the floor beside the bed, and Sakura slept downstairs on the sofa, likewise in an uneasy sleep.

A figure watched the little building that night, a smug grin creeping onto their face as they watched the household rest. By first light, the figure was gone.

Naruto bowed in front of Sakura's parents, thanking them for letting him stay the night. They begrudgingly accepted his thanks, but seemed to warm slightly when the Uchiha child thanked them also. They happily let their daughter go off with the two boys, as the team headed out for the day.

'Hey,' Sakura began, trying to keep things as normal as possible, 'since none of us have any missions for a while, should we go do some practice? So we don't fall behind the other groups.'

'That sounds awesome.' Naruto said cheerfully, grinning up at the clear blue sky, his arms behind his head. The training grounds were on the edge of the village, and consisted of various wooden props and mechanisms used to train ninjas to respond to unexpected attacks. The trio set up various formations to practice against, and took over one section of the grounds. Some other teams were using their days off to practice as well, but mostly the grounds were empty. However, on one of their breaks where Sakura was working out how best to tailor the dummies to their style, Naruto noticed Chouji was slumped at the side of a fighting arena. Rubbing the back of his head, he went over to the boy.

'Hey.' Naruto said, collapsing beside Chouji. 'so you guys came to practice too?'

'Oh hey.' Chouji said through a mouthful of noodles. 'Yeah, Ino got something in her head about Sakura being down here today, so she said we had to train too. But all that seems to happen is Ino tells Shikamaru he needs to do this more, he tells her she needs to do that more, she says he's stupid, he says she's dumb,' Chouji sighed, 'I just stay out of it. Hey, wanna try these new crackers I got?'

The pair relaxed together until Sakura came and physically dragged Naruto away, leaving Chouji bored again.

'But Sakura-' Naruto whined.

'No, no 'but's, I have just spent half an hour organising this set up, you are going to go through it with us.' Dumping him at his position, Sakura marched to hers. Naruto looked over at Sasuke, who slouched on his starting spot.

'Hey, Teme, bet I'll get trough first.'

'Baka.' Sasuke snorted. 'Loser buys ramen for the winner?'

'What?' Naruto blushed. That was probably the last thing he had expected to come out of Sasuke's mouth. He turned away, and yelled 'FINE,' trying to cover his confusion. He was sure there was a reason behind it, he just couldn't make his brain work it out, and now all he could think about was how like a date this seemed, what the hell was wrong with him? He tried to get a handle on things, but gave up as his brain fizzled into little confused, excited and scared sounds. He stared straight ahead, begging his face to drain of its new maroon colour.

Sasuke on the other hand was cursing himself. To the outside world, he had a smug grin on his face, and was staring nonchalantly at the arena set up for them. Inside, he was in a panic. Maybe he'd come on too strong, maybe he should have just kept his big mouth shut. _I'm such an idiot, there's no way that can have come out alright. Naruto probably thinks you're a big…freak. Yeah. Some big freak who is asking him out for ramen. Idiot. Why couldn't you have been normal? Yes, fine, I like Naruto, YOU HEAR ME, STUPID INSIDE FEELINGS? FINE YOU WIN. But that means nothing. That reaction? That means HE'S NOT INTERESTED and you have just severely freaked him out and fucked things up. Great._

Sakura frowned, but yelled for them to start anyway. Naruto seemed more determined than usual. This was partially because he wanted Sasuke to buy him ramen, partially because he just wanted to stop feeling like a pile of goop, and fighting and training was the best way to physically distract himself, and, of course, partially because free ramen is the best kind of ramen.

It began to rain as they went through the different levels of the challenge set up. Sakura had got them all to set up little bits, so no one knew everything, or expected everything. This meant that when it began to pour, and visibility became low, slip ups began to happen. Repeatedly Naruto was sent sliding past the dummies, or Sasuke would slip and miss a target. The competition began to get close, and Sakura growled in frustration at so clearly being left behind. No one noticed a figure watching in the woods, and so it was completely out of the blue when Naruto started hearing that buzzing sound again, and froze. He clutched his head, and was knocked over by one of the dummies. Yelping, he slid across the ground, and curled into a ball, feeling like his head was being torn apart. Sasuke immediately jumped into action, closely followed by Sakura. The dummies kept getting in their way, and the rain made them slower, but when they got to Naruto, he was still conscious.

'Naruto, Naruto listen to me stay with us!' Sasuke yelled, as thunder rolled overhead. 'Sakura' the storm exploded around them, noise, wind, rain, it was as if the elements were trying to drown the group in every way possible. 'SAKURA, SAKURA WE NEED TO GET NARUTO OUT OF HERE'

'SASUKE I CAN'T HEAR YOU.' The storm stole Sakura's words before they could get to Sasuke, and the pair stared down at Naruto, who had his mouth open in a silent scream. There was blood, Sasuke realised, as a chill went down his spine. Blood was being washed across Naruto's face by the rain, and he couldn't work out where from.

'SAKURA, HELP, GET HELP.' Sasuke screamed in her ear, this time she got the message, and jumped up, running to the edge of the arena. Sasuke wrapped his arms around Naruto, and dragged him into the shelter at their side of the grounds, an old hut. It was falling apart in this weather, but gave them some protection. Enough that Sasuke could dry off Naruto's face, and try to trace the source of the blood. Naruto's face was scrunched up in agony, but he soon found that the blood was dribbling out from underneath Naruto's eyelids. Then there was a flash, and Naruto's eyes snapped open. Yellow. Bright yellow. Almost golden. Sasuke's heart fluttered as fear washed over him, again he couldn't see Naruto in there, only the demon. He tried hard to not let his fear show, but then Naruto began to glow, and strange tails emerged from him, Sasuke recognised them as solidified chakra, but they didn't act like normal chakra, they floated around, scorching wherever they touched. Naruto frowned, and a tail reached out to Sasuke. Automatically he flinched, and the tail paused, a darkness clouding Naruto's, or whatever the hell was in there's eyes. In a flash Naruto was up, and sprinting to the forest.

'No, NO, NARUTO COME BACK!' But he was gone. Sasuke stared through the storm, kneeling in the mud, feeling as helpless as he had done as a child, when his entire family had died before him, and he had been able to do nothing to save them. What was he supposed to do? He would do anything for Naruto, he knew that, but he had no idea what sort of 'anything' he needed to do. For the first time in a long time, fear and despair took over Sasuke, and he began to sob.

Naruto ran through the forest, ignoring the agony shooting through him, blinded by tears. The one person who meant the world to him, the one person who had always looked at him like…like a friend, and…and he had…Naruto closed his eyes, and huddled under a tree, the tails curling around him. He couldn't forget that look of fear in Sasuke's eyes, and when he'd accidentally moved a tail towards him…he'd hurt him. He'd hurt Sasuke. His teammate. His…maybe more than that. But no, that was gone now. That was dead. He'd scared Sasuke, not by doing something stupid, not by getting hurt, but by being a monster. He punched the tree he was huddled under, scorching it. It was then that he noticed two things, one; that the rain was sizzling on him, as if he were on fire, and two; he was not as alone as he had thought.

A figure came closer, and the wind and rain if anything became worse, swirling around the figure as if they were the centre of the storm. Leaves and branches were flung towards Naruto, and he had to throw his arms up to protect his face. A second figure appeared behind the first, and then a third. Then Naruto flinched as an arm rested on his shoulder. He turned to look at the ninja that had been tormenting him for what felt like so long, and felt the grin on his face stab him like an icy arrow through his chest. The ninja raised his hand, and the storm dropped around them, a calm in the centre of chaos.

'Naru-chan, you have been so hard to track down. But now it's over. Now we've won. There is very little left to do. So very little.'

The figures became clearer, one was from another village, the one who was the centre of the storm, and was clothed in grey swathes of cloth, whilst the other two were like the ninja beside him, just ordinary hidden leaf villagers who wouldn't look out of place in the middle of the village, though one wore a bandage over one eye. The hand resting on Naruto's arm gripped like a vice, and dragged him away, much as he fought, the ninja's claw-like hand was as hard as iron. Then the two other hidden leaf ninjas grabbed him as well, and he could only thrash around, trying to loosen their grip, but already he felt tired, his tails were mere threads of chakra, and his world was becoming dark. The leader felt him slump, and barked an order, and Naruto felt his slide into unconsciousness suddenly halt.

'Oh no Naru-chan, you have to be awake for this. Not very, but just enough.' They came to a shack, which looked as if it had been thrown together in a hurry, and Naruto was thrust inside. 'This won't take long.' Smirked the Ninja, loosening his belt, and following Naruto inside. Whimpering, Naruto backed away, but hit the edge of the shack. The ninja leered at him, and approached. The belt hung from his hand, and swung as though something heavy were attached to the end. Naruto reached for his shuriken, but the other ninja was faster, lashing out with the belt so it struck Naruto across the face. He cried out, and pain seared through his head, blood trickling down across his face, as he threw the shuriken. The ninja dodged them, and again whipped out the belt, beating Naruto until he curled up.

'That's right Naru-chan, don't fight it.' The ninja pulled Naruto's trousers down, causing the boy to yelp, and then undid his own trousers. Naruto tried to scramble away, but with a cruel laugh, something thick and throbbing plunged into Naruto, thrusting over and over. Naruto sobbed, and cried out, trying to drag himself away, but the belt came flicking out again across his head, and he collapsed, all the fight being drained out of him slowly, everything feeling as if he were moving through thick mud. The ground beneath them began to glow, lines and symbols carved into the dirt lighting up as if glowing water was trickling through them. The ninja on Naruto pressed a hand against the tattoo on Naruto's stomach, and the other three ninja performed some sort of jitsu. The storm seemed to freeze, and Naruto barely knew what was happening, but felt like something was slipping away from him, being torn slowly from inside. The Ninja thrusting into him laughed gleefully as a chakra tail formed on Naruto, and twisted around his body, sliding down to where the Ninja was inside Naruto, and twisting around him, until it left the boy's body completely and whipped around behind the man. The blonde whimpered as the moments seemed to drag on, the penetration repeating itself over and over, and then finally it was done. But Naruto was a shell. He had retreated deep into himself, somewhere where the rhythmic thrusts, agony, and violation couldn't reach.

The ninja smiled, smug, and tidied up after himself. The job was done, for now. This was all part of the plan. He had the urge to do more, to see how far they could get their big plan, but he calmed himself. All in good time. Leaving the shack, the tail slowly thinned and disappeared, and the furrows in the ground sealed themselves up. He ordered his team about, and they pulled the shack apart, leaving hardly a trace of their presence, but a weak, pathetic Naruto, oblivious to the world around him. And then they were gone.


	7. Chapter 7

Sasuke was running through the woods, calling out for Naruto. The storm was slowly subsiding, and he couldn't just sit around waiting. The desolation that had swept over him had faded, and anger had replaced it, anger at himself, anger at unknown forces tearing his world apart again. He cursed as again he lost Naruto's tracks. Turning back, and picking them up again, he tried to bury the deep anxiety and worry. What had happened to Naruto? What was going to happen? This was all so…messy.

He came out into a slight clearing, and his heart almost stopped. Naruto was curled up under a tree. There was blood streaked all across his face and torso.

'Naruto!' Sasuke skidded in the mud, sliding over to his side, and picking him up so that Naruto's head was on his lap. 'Naruto wake up.' Sasuke couldn't hide the panic in his voice, and checked over the wounds. They weren't normal wounds; something jagged had cut deep into Naruto's flesh. The wounds had already started healing, but there was something else wrong. Maybe it was how pale Naruto was, or how limp he felt, but Sasuke felt like something was missing. He couldn't place it. Just something.

'ss..a..' a quiet voice drew Sasuke's attention back to Naruto's face.

'Hey, hey dobe, c'mon, we need to get you out of here.' Two blue eyes opened, but when Sasuke looked into them, they looked half empty, like Naruto wasn't really there. 'No, no don't you do this to me again.' Sasuke growled, pulling the blonde into a hug, squeezing him.

'..ah…ow…' came quiet protests, but Sasuke didn't let go.

'God damn it Naruto, you are not leaving me.' He released Naruto slightly, just so that he could look into Naruto's eyes. 'I…I love you. Fuck it, I said it. There.' He waited for some response, anger, disgust, anything. But Naruto remained blank, barely there, as if he hadn't even heard it. 'NARUTO DON'T DO THIS, I LOVE YOU.' There was the briefest flicker of recognition, then it was gone, and Naruto was a limp puppet again. 'NARUTO!' Sasuke couldn't bear this, he hated whoever had done this, whatever had done this. They would pay, by the fucking gods they would pay.

'Sasuke.' He turned, and saw Ino and Sakura appear with Tsunade. 'Let me see.' The Hokage checked Naruto over, and looked into his eyes, a grim expression on her face. 'Sasuke, take Naruto to your house, treat his wounds as fast as you can, and be ready for that fever again. Sakura, go get Kakashi, and bring him here to meet me, then go back to Sasuke's house. Ino, go get your team and team 8, Hinata, Kiba and Shino.' She looked at the frozen teenagers. 'NOW.'

Sasuke didn't wait to see if the girls responded, he gathered up Naruto and sprinted through the forest back to the village, and to the safety of his house. When he arrived, he rushed past shocked looking staff, and virtually tried to kick his door down before the gardener came over and unlocked it for him. He choked out a 'thanks', then booted the door shut, and ran over to his sofa. Slowing down, he carefully placed Naruto onto it, propping him up with cushions everywhere he could think of. Naruto remained vacant, so Sasuke went to his cupboard, and dragged out his medical box, placing it beside Naruto, and starting the process of treating his wounds. Sakura turned up as he finished the last cut, and he let her in, before ignoring her again, and focussing on Naruto, who was covered in bandages and plasters. Sakura tried to ask what she could do to help, but either Sasuke didn't care what she was saying enough to pay it any attention, or he wasn't hearing her. She gave up, remembering what Tsunade had said about Naruto's fever, and began making up a bowl of water and finding a cloth.

Sasuke wasn't aware of time, there were only tasks, and once he began running out of tasks revolving around treating Naruto's wounds, he began checking on the ones he'd already treated, until he started to notice Naruto's temperature rise.

'Fever…' he muttered, standing up, and suddenly Sakura was there, with a bucket, a cloth, and a bowl of something.

'Fever.'

'How did…' Sasuke began, but Sakura shoved him at Naruto.

'I can deal with you not paying any attention to me because of Naruto, but don't be an idiot, he needs looking after right now.' She glared, hand on her hips at Sasuke, until he shuffled over to Naruto again.

It took about ten minutes after that before Ino showed up with the people she had been sent to fetch. They all stood awkwardly in the living room until Sasuke said 'just…make yourselves comfy. There's green tea in one of the cupboards.' The group was slow to warm up, but Kiba, his dog Akamaru, Hinata and Chouji came to sit with Naruto and Sasuke. They all had the same worried expressions as Sasuke.

'What…happened?' Kiba asked. When Sasuke didn't respond, Chouji tried to help.

'We were all training, and then a storm happened…'

'I let him go.' Sasuke hissed. 'I let him run off, I did something stupid, and now…now he's…'

'He'll be okay.' Hinata whispered. Sasuke stared at the three, Chouji; Naruto's newest friend, Kiba; a friend he'd actually seen Naruto hanging out with in the past, and Hinata; a girl who had had a crush on Naruto for as long as he could remember. These were Naruto's friends. Not him. Not the person who had let Naruto down. He watched as Hinata smoothed down Naruto's hair as he shifted in his feverish state, and a burning jealousy took over him, quelled by one thought. _You don't deserve him._ He had let Naruto down, and when he'd tried to bring him back by laying his feelings bare it had done no good.

'Here.' He passed Hinata the cloth and bowl. 'Maybe you can wake him up.' A normal girlfriend, that was what Naruto needed, not some damaged, idiot guy. He got up and walked towards the front door, only to be intercepted by Sakura.

'Hey,' she whispered, 'what are you doing?'

'I'm…going to get some more herbs for the drink.'

'Bullshit.'

Sasuke stared at her blankly.

'I'm not an idiot Sasuke, Naruto needs you right now, you have to stay.'

'No, he needs normality, not me. You don't understand-'

'Yes actually, I do, and I may be about to ruin my chances with you forever but I don't care. You. Are. An. Idiot.' Sasuke looked at her, really looked. She looked angry, defiant, a blazing girl of fire, determined to get through to him. 'You can sulk all you want when Naruto is better, only someone blind couldn't tell that Naruto, despite his own blindness issues, likes you back. He just doesn't understand it.' Sasuke turned back to look at Naruto, his heart lifting, hope blossoming in darkness. But a cold hand gripped that feeling, bringing his spirits back down.

'But I couldn't…he won't come back…'

They both stared at Naruto, whose eyes were now shut. Before either could say another word, a knock came at the door. Sasuke looked out, and saw Tsunade and Kakashi there, and quickly let them in.

'How is he?' Tsunade asked, nodding as Sakura filled her in. 'We need to take him to another room. Bedroom?' Sasuke nodded, and went to pick Naruto up, before leading the way upstairs. Hinata followed with the bowl and cloth, but was shooed out of the room by Kakashi, so that Tsunade, Sasuke and Naruto were alone. 'Firstly,' Tsunade said, checking Naruto's wounds, 'we need to have a code. A sign, or word to recognise one another with. This will work for now.' She squeezed Sasuke's shoulder, then used her special jutsu to summon a large slug, which had a green, blue, and red stripe running down it. 'Your turn. Something I can recognise you with? Something only you can do.' Sasuke's mind went blank. Staring around, he thought, then mentally slapped himself. He focussed, and called on his Sharingan, placing his hand out. She nodded, and performed a jutsu, which he managed to copy exactly, using his Sharingan.

'Listen to me Sasuke, things are getting worse, what's happening to Naruto…well…I'll explain in a minute, but it's time to be vigilant. I thought you could live normally whilst we worked in the background to try and handle things, but that time has passed. This is going to be hard but…trust no one. I know I can trust you because only you, and Kakashi, have that Sharingan in this village, and I think I know who we're up against, there's no way they could fake that. Likewise we can use that to identify Kakashi, and only I can summon, well, slugs like that slug. Do not trust anyone else alone with Naruto. I need you to be with him all the time. The only other person you can leave him alone with is me, and that's what I'm going to have to ask you to do in a moment. Only for a while. But then do not leave his side.'

'Why?' It was Naruto's voice that croaked the query. Sasuke's worry over the conversation taking place was immediately taken over with concern with Naruto.

'Naruto, how d'you feel?' He knelt down beside the bed, and felt Naruto's forehead, which was still burning up.

'I…' Naruto's eyes became distant again as his mind tried hard not to re-live what had happened.

'No, no Naruto don't…don't do that, please, I'm begging you, stay with me.' Sasuke pleaded, and Naruto's eyes fixed back on Sasuke, misreading the fear. He curled up, hiding himself from the world, cursing himself inside. 'Naruto please.' Sasuke's voice broke, causing the blonde to look back into his eyes, 'please stop shutting me out. I don't know what to do.' Naruto had never seen the raven so weak, so vulnerable. He dragged himself out of his shell just enough that he looked more like himself, and then in a whisper began to tell Sasuke and the silent Tsunade what had happened. He kept the details brief, covering the pain, the tails, Sasuke's fear, spitting out his words when he remembered hurting Sasuke, and then in a rush spilling out what had happened in the forest. Though missing the crucial part about one tail being taken by the ninja, as he was not even aware that that had happened.

Sasuke's eyes were on fire. He had never felt so angry. He wanted to destroy the people who had done this. Whilst Tsunade gently asked for descriptions of the men, Sasuke went around the bed, and sat behind Naruto, wrapping an arm around him protectively, both so that Naruto would feel safe, and so that he wouldn't see Sasuke's murderous eyes. _I'm going to kill them. Slowly and painfuly. I will drag their insides out and make them eat them. I'll burn their eyes out, and snap their limbs one by one. And that raping bastard…I'll tie him down, and bit by bit chop his fucking cock off, and make him eat his balls._

Slowly Sasuke calmed down, but his intentions stayed the same. Tsunade must have seen something in his eyes, as when she took him into the hallway she muttered 'don't do anything stupid', before shutting the bedroom door. She had said something about a protection ritual, and how she needed to perform it alone, otherwise other people risked being pulled into it, which meant that if they were separated, the protection would fail. Sasuke was fighting the urge to say that there was no way he was going to leave Naruto's side for the next decade or so after all that had happened, but understood that he may not have a choice. It seemed to take hours, and Sasuke waited up on the landing, pacing back and forth, sitting and staring at the door, leaning against it hoping to catch any hint of how far they were, slowly bumping the back of his head against the wall, lying on the landing staring up at the ceiling, sitting by the stairs, eyes locked on the door but listening to the others downstairs, or staring out of the landing window. Finally Tsunade came out when Sasuke was in a sitting staring at the door stage. He scrambled up, and looked at Tsunade. She looked tired, but calm, and nodded to him. He rushed inside, and knelt down beside Naruto again.

'Dobe, you need to stop scaring me.' Naruto looked at Sasuke, and burst into tears. Sasuke had not been expecting that, and immediately backpedalled. 'Baka, don't be an idiot, I don't scare that easily, I just…meant…stop trying to scare me.' _Great cover Teme._ 'I don't care how scared I get, seriously, nothing scares me much, I just…I don't…why is me being scared such a big deal?'

'I didn't mean to' Naruto sobbed. 'I didn't want to scare you, I'm sorry, the tails, my eyes, they just…happen.'

'Baka.' Sasuke's tone was harsh. 'That's not what scared me. I couldn't care less what your eye colour is, or if you have a million burning tails. I don't particularly like being burnt, but it doesn't scare me.' Naruto sniffed, and stared into Sasuke's eyes. 'You running off, finding you…like that…that's what scares me the most.' Sasuke took a deep breath. This was going to be hard. 'You mean…everything to me. Naruto I…I like you more than you know. I…think I love you.' He internally winced, and waited for Naruto's reaction. The blonde stared, no longer crying, and completely dumbfounded.

'WHAT?'

'Fucking hell Naruto,' said Sasuke, wincing at the loudness, 'trying to deafen the whole house?'

'BUT BUT BUT BUT…' Naruto stared uncomprehendingly at Sasuke.

'But you're an idiot? Because I agree with THAT sentiment.'

'BUT I…BUT SAKURA…BUT YOU…AND…BOYS…AND…'

'Oh, sure, tell the whole neighbourhood.'

'BUT…I mean…but…but…'

Sasuke rolled his eyes, Naruto was not good at these things. 'Look, I would really appreciate a response other than 'but'.'

'Um…I...don't know what to say.' Sasuke turned away. 'No, no no not as in a bad way…I don't think…I mean…I mean if I liked you back that would explain a lot…' Sasuke's heart fluttered. Naruto stared at the wall, his mind a mess of panic, whilst an excited voice was whizzing around going 'yayayayayayayayayayay'.

'Look, you have plenty of time to think it over. I'm on Naruto guard duty, mkay?'

'Sure.' Naruto beamed at him, but then his smile faded, fear back in his eyes. Sasuke cursed himself, this was a really, really bad time to be doing this.

'Look, just, forget about it for now okay?'

'I…I don't want to…it's just…with…him out there…I don't know if I can ever…do stuff again…'

'Whoah, Naruto, you are seriously getting ahead of yourself.' Sasuke said, reassuring him. 'Look, lets just…I dunno, start with…ramen?'

Naruto grinned, and was about to respond when a knock came at the door.

'Guys?' Came Sakura's voice, 'I heard Naruto yell my name, is everything okay?'

'Yes' They both chorused.

'Okay, um, well Chouji, Ino, and Shikamaru are going home, but team 8 want to know if they can crash here, same for me, Tsunade said it was probably a good idea for more of us to stay here tonight.'

'Um…okay...' Sasuke said, thinking, 'um, go outside, find one of the gardeners, and ask for Thea, she's like…a sort of…housekeeper person. She can sort out beds downstairs for you guys. If there's no one outside, go to the main house.'

'Pfft,' Sakura responded, and they heard her mutter 'brings a bloodied body to his house, random strangers show up, Hokage shows up and he thinks no one will be around…'

Naruto smiled slightly at Sasuke, and the raven glared at him.

'Sleep baka, I'm not going to be responsible for you getting worse. Rest.'

Light streamed in through the window, and Naruto lay awake, staring at the sky drifting past. The Uchiha estate was large, and there was a huge outdoor space, so all he could see was sky, no rooftops, no buildings. He smiled, it was nice. He rolled over, wincing as some of his cuts reopened. That was odd, he thought, they should have healed more by now…but that thought vanished as he stared at Sasuke, asleep beside him. He smiled for a moment, but then it faded. This was what he wanted; he knew that, this perfect world, where he and Sasuke were the only ones, where they lived in blissful peace. But that couldn't happen. He was a monster, and someone out there, that ninja, the others, the village, someone, somewhere, was going to destroy his world, and possibly everyone else's.

'Dobe, don't look so serious.' Came a mutter from Sasuke, and blue eyes met onyx.

'But…but nothings going to be the same…'

'The same as what?'

'As before.'

Sasuke struggled up so that his chin rested on the heel of his hand. 'And what exactly were things like before?' he raised an eyebrow at Naruto. 'The way I see it, before, people acted in the same stupid way. The bad things happening, now that you have more people on your side, they're going to stop. This is just like…like a really long mission. We just need to complete it, get through it, get our reward, then continue to have…'

'Really normal lives?'

'I wouldn't go that far, that'd be boring.'

Naruto grinned, and Sasuke felt a smile tug on his own mouth. But just as he was about to reach out and ruffle Naruto's hair, something thudded on the bedroom door. Followed by scratching.

'The hell…' Sasuke rolled over, clambering up, and pulled his shorts and top on, stumbling over to open the door. 'Who-' he looked ahead, then down. Akamaru was on the floor, tongue lolling out, grinning up at him. That was fine in itself, but the thing that made him glare was Kiba, who was also lying on the floor, staring up at him, hand outstretched, giving away that it had been him, not Akamaru, who had scratched at the door. 'Can I help you?' Sasuke's voice had an icy edge to it, but Kiba seemed immune to it and the death glare.

'Huuunngrrryyyyy' He whined, rolling over, and clutching Sasuke's ankles. 'Your house has no good foooooood, you only have coriander, and celery, and salmon, and rice, and it suuucckkssss.'

Naruto appeared beside Sasuke, grinning. 'It's almost like he wants something.'

'Naruuutooooooo!' Kiba howled, as the blonde knelt down and petted Akamaru's head, giving him ear scritchies. 'I need meeeaaat!'

'Salmon is meat.' Sasuke said bluntly.

'No it's not.' Kiba pouted. 'I need beeeeeeeeef!'

'No.' Sasuke replied, scowling.

In a stage whisper, Naruto said to Kiba, 'Sasuke doesn't like beef.'

Kiba looked up at them from the ground, then tucked his knees into his chest, and flipped himself up, spinning back to face them, grinning, and yelled 'FOOD SHOPPING!'

'Did someone say food shopping?' came a muffled shout from downstairs.

'Oh yeah, Chouji, Ino and Shikamaru are back.'

Sasuke groaned, and shut the door on Kiba.

'NOOOOO' cried Kiba, battering the door as Sasuke rubbed his forehead with his fist.

'C'mon.' Naruto said, grinning beside him, and tilting his head to look cute. 'With nine of us out there, what could go wrong?'

'You're using my crush against me.' Sasuke grumbled, and Naruto smiled cheerfully.

'Then we can go?'

'Yes. We can go.' Sasuke grabbed Naruto as he made a dash for the door. 'NOT until I've checked those wounds.' He was about to sit Naruto down and leave the room when he remembered what Tsunade had said. 'Actually…lets do this downstairs. Sakura can help.' He lied, hoping not to worry Naruto. Kiba grinned, and hugged Naruto when they left the room, mumbling about how mean Sasuke was. Downstairs the others met them, and Sakura helped Sasuke check on Naruto's wounds, undoing the bandages, and cleaning the wounds, placing herbs on the unhappy looking ones.

The group was rather a large one for Sasuke's small house, so Ino, Sakura, Shino and Kiba volunteered to go food shopping, Chouji, Hinata and Sasuke would stay with Naruto, as would Akamaru, as Kiba said he would be a good guard dog, though Sasuke doubted that, looking at the soppy mutt. Shikamaru agreed to go to the main house to get more chairs, so that everyone had somewhere to sit, after being given instructions to find Thea again. The morning was pleasant, so Sasuke opened the front door, the windows, and the French windows. Fresh air flowed through the rooms, and the four of them began to relax. Sasuke ended up digging through his cupboards looking for something to play, and finding a deck of cards.

'Does anyone know any card games?' He called over the cupboard door.

'GO FISH!' Yelled Chouji.

'SPIT!' Yelled Naruto.

'Ring of fire…' Hinata whispered, and all three boys turned to her, and she blushed.

'Yeah, lets play that!' Naruto grinned.

'Dobe, you need alcohol to play that.' Sasuke grumbled.

'We could use sweet chilli sauce instead.' Chouji offered.

'Sure, why not. This can't possibly go wrong.' The others didn't miss his icy sarcasm. 'It's not like anyone has any sensible ideas anyway.' He grumbled, shutting the cupboard. They set the cards out, and tried to remember the rules, arguing over which numbers meant what.

'Well we can't do Ace as waterfall because I don't think we have enough sweet chilli sauce for that' said Chouji, grinning.

'You like sweet chilli sauce don't you.' Naruto said, poking Chouji in the side.

'Well yes…'

'King won't work very well if we're all drinking the same thing…' Hinata contributed.

'Okay, lets all drink something we don't like.' Naruto went over to a cupboard, and picked out the sweet chilli sauce for Hinata, the lemon juice for Chouji, Tabasco sauce for himself, then smirked, and began doing something with his back to Sasuke, who became suspicious. Naruto turned back, with a mug in his hand, and sauntered over to Sasuke, placing the brown liquid in front of Sasuke, grinning.

'What…' Sasuke began, and then stopped as the smell hit his nose. Damn, he'd had some beef cubes at the back of the cupboard hadn't he. 'No. No, no, no.'

'Yes yes yes!' cheered Naruto, 'Cold beef stock!'

'Just, as a point, do you have any idea how much salt there is in this?' Sasuke asked, glaring at Naruto.

Just then, Shikamaru came in, carrying an armchair, followed by a few of the household staff.

'Ah! Just in time!' Said Naruto, grinning and jumping up. 'Shikamaru, what do you hate drinking?'

'What?' The boy stared, dumbfounded at them all.

'We're playing ring of fire.' Hinata said.

'With hot sauce!' Chouji chuckled.

'Well, I'm not a big fan of fish sauce.' He let the other staff put down their chairs, then seemed to struggle slightly with his.

'Oh, let me help.' Naruto said, feeling guilty that he was the cause of all of this, and going over to help Shikamaru place the chair down. As he was doing it, he heard a strange sound, and looked over to see Akamaru growling, his hackles raised. 'What's wrong boy?' he said, about to move towards the dog, but Shikamaru caught his arm, staring at the dog.

'That's…wrong…' Chouji muttered, staring in confusion at Shikamaru, 'I've seen you eat things…with fish sauce…on top…'

Sasuke looked from Chouji back over to Shikamaru, and Naruto, and slowly stood up.

'Naruto, could you come over here a second?' He felt a chill go down his spine, and the hairs at the back of his neck rose, but not letting his fear show in his voice.

'What's wrong?' Naruto asked, looking puzzled.

'Yeah,' Shikamaru looked at him, pulling Naruto back a bit, 'What's wrong?' The two Genin stared at one another, silence falling as everyone felt the atmosphere freeze, so tense that you could cut it with a knife.

'I just need Naruto to come over so I can check one of his cuts, it looks like it's bleeding through the bandage.' He said, thinking fast. Shikamaru glanced over at Naruto's forehead, and that was all Sasuke needed, the brief moment the other ninja had looked away gave Sasuke a window to leap at him, pulling Naruto behind him, as Shikamaru pulled out his kunai and slashed Sasuke's arm. He quickly did a hand sign, and a gust swept Sasuke back as Shikamaru dived forwards, and grabbed Naruto, who quickly substituted his body with a cushion, but not before the skin around one of Shikamaru's eyes seemed to peel away, revealing a bloody bandage underneath. Naruto panicked, and hauled Sasuke back with him behind the sofa, just as Hinata leapt forwards and activated her Byakugan, dodging the attacks, and jabbing a kunai into the false Shikamaru's left shoulder, stopping the flow of chakra to that arm, but in seconds the ninja's face began to crack and crumble away, the true ninja's face appearing, and they yelled 'KAZE NO YAIBA' and swung something at Hinata, and blood gushed out of her chest, as she fell to the floor. Naruto cried out, and performed Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, summoning ten clones, who all attacked the ninja, blocking Hinata and Sasuke from view. The ninja slashed at the clones, blocking their attacks, but then a giant arm burst between the Naruto clones, and punched the ninja to the floor, as Chouji joined the attack. Just when they seemed to be managing, Naruto screamed, and froze, as the ninja blew up his clones, and grabbed Hinata from the floor.

'Stop. All of you.' He said, holding a blade to her neck, his other arm hanging limply. 'She can die quick, with no chance, or she can die slow, and you can try to save her. You, demon boy, do you really think you're worth more than her?'

The group stood in silence, dust settling, not even Akamaru making a sound, as they tried to catch their breath, and the severity of the situation caught up to them. Naruto cringed against the pain, and pushed Sasuke's arm away as he gripped his shoulder.

'I have to.' He whispered.

'No, no you don't, there has to be another way…' Sasuke whispered back.

'There isn't…' Naruto hissed, slowly standing up, and shoving Sasuke's hand away. 'Okay.' He stood shakily, and walked over to the ninja, who dropped Hinata's body, and gripped Naruto's upper arm with his other arm, which seemed to be regaining strength.

'Good boy. But, she's contaminated now, can't let that live on.' Before anyone had time to react, he threw the kunai into Hinata's chest, and she coughed and went still.

'NO!' Naruto screamed, but the ninja was dragging him out of the door. Sasuke cursed, and left Chouji crouching over Hinata, trying to stop the blood. She wasn't dead, not yet, just in shock. That's what Sasuke told himself, he hadn't just lost someone, how stupid he'd been, he ran after the ninja, and saw him disappear over the rooftops, Naruto struggling, and fighting, but then going rigid, and slumping. They'd done something, he was reacting the same way as he had before, when he had the fever. _No, nonono, I have to get to him, he'll…if he gets a fever…if I'm not there…if he wakes up with…with them…if…if he wakes up at all…_ Sasuke felt angry tears spill over as he fell further and further behind, the ninja and Naruto disappearing into the village. He ran down a roof, and scanned the crowd, but there was no sign of either of them.

'NO!' he screamed, the image of Naruto's smile bursting into his mind, followed by his limp body held in the arm of the ninja, his curled up body, bloody and scared when Sasuke went into his apartment, Naruto under the tree, the eyes that wouldn't see, Naruto smiling at the top of the tree in the morning sun, his grin fading as he realised the seriousness of the situation.

 _No, no, I have to see him smile again…no, I won't let anyone do that ever again, I WON'T!_

'I WON'T LET THEM, I PROMISED.' Sasuke screamed, people in the street looked up, shocked at the scream, but he barely noticed them, running across the rooftops, determined to find Naruto even if he had to search forever. He would find him. He had to. Ignoring the hopeless feeling welling up inside him, his desperation gave him energy. He ran, and ran, and ran, the sun getting higher and higher, the heat barely touching him as he felt cold sweat trickle down his back and chest. Running across a particularly sloped roof he slid, grasping at the slate he fell, gashing his leg, the blood bringing back images of Hinata. _No, she's fine, Chouji is with her. I…I have to find Naruto…_ He scrambled up, and clambered onto the roof again, sprinting across to a particularly tall building, where he stared at the village, helplessness overflowing with his tears that he angrily rubbed away.

'So…you really need to find him hm?'

Sasuke rounded on a figure on the rooftop with him, they looked just like any other ninja, ordinary, nothing special about them, but something felt off. Something felt wrong.

'Who are you?'

'The boss is probably dealing with the fox at this very moment.'

'If he dares…' Sasuke grit his teeth, and prepared to lunge at the man, but the roof pulled out from underneath him, and he fell to the ground below, hitting it hard, and falling unconscious.


	8. Chapter 8

There was the murmur of voices, distant, and a whimpering sound closer by. Sasuke couldn't work out where he was, beneath him felt hard, and lumpy, his head and side hurt, and something sticky was drying on his face. And he could smell blood. An image flashed across his mind, Naruto being carried away by a stranger. _No!_ His eyes snapped open, and he saw Naruto ahead of him, blue eyes shining with fear. As they looked at one another, Naruto ever so slightly shook his head, and Sasuke noticed four ninja's with their backs to them. They were in a small room, with no furniture or features apart from two doors at either end of the room, and a circular looking stone tablet that Naruto was on top of, bound by thick ropes. Barely moving, Sasuke tested his own bonds, his legs and arms were tied up, but someone had wrapped some sort of leather around his hands in fists, so he couldn't perform any hand motions for his jitsu. He looked around slowly, trying to work out what to do, but the movement of his head caught the eye of one of their captors.

'Boss…' One of them began, and one of the figures moved towards them.

'You…' Sasuke hissed, recognising the ninja from the forest the second time Naruto had 'fallen' out of the tree. The man grinned, it was a cruel, hungry grin. Then his foot lashed out, knocking the air from Sasuke's lungs. 'Bastard,' he gasped, 'I'll…'

'You'll what, Uchiha?' came the sickeningly sing song voice, 'you can't touch me, you're useless.' He leant down, and took two of Sasuke's kunai, rounding on Naruto. 'Now watch, watch me destroy your precious Naru-chan, watch as I destroy that which you try so hard to protect, with your own weapons.' He cut Naruto's shirt open with the kunai, Naruto yelled, and kicked out with his tied up legs, but one of the other men grabbed his ankles, and held them down. The leader grabbed Naruto's neck, and pinned it down against the stone, before slashing across the boy's stomach, scoring lines across the tattoo amidst Naruto's yells.

'STOP IT, STOP, I'LL KILL YOU, I'LL CUT YOUR FUCKING THROAT!' Sasuke shouted, twisting and wriggling towards them until the second figure kicked him across the face, opening his wounds freshly, blood spilling down his face, before grabbing him by the shoulders, pulling him back and holding him in a head lock facing Naruto. From his new position he could see symbols and grooves cut into the stone, and as Naruto's blood spilled onto it, they began to glow. The man flipped Naruto onto his belly, and cut the ropes around his wrists. Before Naruto had a chance to break free, the man grabbed one of his arms, slammed it down onto the tablet, and held one of the kunai over it, turning to lock eyes with Sasuke.

'No, please, please stop!' Naruto begged, crying, but the man raised his arm, and stabbed the kunai through the boy's arm, into the stone, making Naruto scream in pain, and claw at the weapon with his other arm. 'PLEASE, PLEASE, I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY FOR BEING A MONSTER JUST PLEASE STOP!' The leader ignored his cries, and gripped the other arm, pulling it across to be parallel with the first, and again stabbing the kunai, Sasuke's kunai, through the arm, nailing it to the stone below.

'Just think.' The leader sneered, turning back to Sasuke, 'if you hadn't brought any kunai, this might not have happened.'

Sasuke paled. He wanted to scream it was bullshit, that this man was a monster, that he would have anyway, but guilt spread through his stomach like poison.

'It's…not…true…' came the sobbing voice of Naruto, face crumpling with pain, 'he's lying…'

'Maybe I am.' The man muttered, looking away, almost like he didn't know the answer himself, before turning back to Sasuke, and taking his third and last kunai. 'Time to continue what I started.' He crossed over to Naruto, and ripped off what remained of Naruto's shirt, cutting deeply into the small of his back. Naruto cried out, and blood spilt down his sides, pooling around him, and dribbled out of his mouth. Sasuke struggled, feeling his leg bonds give slightly, but unable to pull his legs free. The ninja had a grim expression, dropping the kunai, and making some hand symbols, mirrored by the last ninja, a stranger not from this village, before digging into Naruto's flesh, through the deep wound, with his fingers. The scream from Naruto pierced Sasuke's heart, it was agony to watch, but he couldn't look away, his muscles freezing in horror. A glowing chakra tail rolled out from behind the ninja, thrashing wildly, an identical one flicking out of Naruto, where the ninja was burying his hand into Naruto's skin. Naruto's scream became louder, and more agonising as the tail wrapped itself around the grinning ninja's arm, burning where it touched, spiralling up to the shoulder, then down his body to the small of his back, extending until it was the same length as the first tail. There was a small flash as the bit connecting to Naruto's body snapped, and the chakra retreated along its path, until all that remained was the new tail flicking next to the old one, and burn marks. The glowing patterns on the tablet closed up, vanishing so that the stone was smooth under the two of them.

The ninja looked at Sasuke, a smirk on his face.

'Now you know. Not that it matters, look how much you can do to stop it.' The smirk grew wider, 'but I'm not finished yet.' He leant over the sobbing Naruto, and yanked down his trousers.

'NO!' Naruto screamed in panic, thrashing about, blood welling up from where his arms were nailed to the stone, 'NO DON'T, SASUKE, SASUKE DON'T WATCH, DON'T, PLEASE I…I CAN'T…' But something in Sasuke broke. No. No, it was going to happen again, he couldn't let it; this was all so messed up. He pulled out from the other ninja's grip, falling to the floor. He felt the ropes slip to his ankles, and yanked his feet free, kicking the ninja bent over him in the jaw, causing them to yelp. Struggling to his knees he scrambled over to Naruto, he slammed into the bastard, before standing up, legs straddling the blonde. Fear chilled him to the core, he had not idea what to do, he couldn't use his sharingan, or any jitsu that needed hand movements, which was pretty much everything he knew. Cold sweat dripped off his forehead, and down his neck, his shirt clung to him, and he shook, standing there, realising just how weak he was, with the four men closing in on him.

The leader froze, looking at one of the doors.

'Damn witch,' he muttered, 'quickly, we need to go, no leave them,' he hissed, as one advanced on the two boys, 'Naru-chan, wait for me.' He sang, and the four of them bolted out through the other door. Sasuke sank, shaking, to the ground beside Naruto, as the blonde whimpered. The door suddenly slammed open, and Sasuke sprang awkwardly up again, eyes wide in terror. Tsunade stood in the doorway, Kiba and Akamaru behind her.

'Sasuke…what happened?'

'PROVE IT, PROVE WHO YOU ARE!' Sasuke screamed, stepping between her and Naruto.

'Sasuke, calm down…' Tsunade said, looking scared.

'PROVE IT!'

Tsunade held out her palm, and summoned a slug with a green, blue, and red stripe running down it.

'Your turn.' She said calmly.

'I…I can't…my hands…' tears rolled down his cheeks, and his voice broke as sobs bubbled through him.

'Sasuke, I'm going to come in, and untie your hands, okay?' Tsunade said quietly, and he nodded. Slowly, she moved into the room, looking around, then going behind Sasuke, untying the rope and removing the leather bonds. Sasuke used his sharingan to clumsilt mirror Tsunades hand signs before collapsing onto Naruto, pulling up his trousers, and trying to pull out the kunai, still crying.

'Sasuke…' Tsunade murmured gently, 'I need to treat Naruto's wounds…you need to not pull out the kunai until I can stop the bleeding.' He nodded, feeling like the world was spinning around very fast, blood kept pouring from the wounds faster and faster. He covered his face with his arms, begging the world to stop. When his family had died, he had felt nothing, everything had been numb…but this was different, he felt like his chest was being sliced open, his head felt hot and prickly, and fear laced his stomach. He felt ill. He felt like he was dying. He heard something moving towards him, and opened his arms slightly to see Akamaru coming towards him, gently nosing his way into Sasuke's lap. He stroked the dog's fur, trying not to drown in his emotions. The sound of kunai clattering to the floor drew his attention. Tsunade was sitting Naruto up, and her hands glowed over the wounds in his arms, which slowly stopped bleeding. Carefully, she picked him up, and went to the door.

'Come, Sasuke, I need to take you two back to my house.' Sasuke didn't move. 'Sasuke, we need to hurry.'

'Go without me.'

'Are you serious?' Tsunade turned to him; Naruto curled up in her arms.

'I…I'm not coming with you.'

'Yes you are.' Said Kiba, squeezing past Tsunade, and hauling Sasuke up. Tsunade stared at Sasuke, who wouldn't meet her eyes, for a moment longer, then turned, and led them out. Kiba marched Sasuke with them, Akamaru on the other side, nudging Sasuke's legs along. The doorway led out to an alley, which they followed to a deserted street. It was a street usually busy, but there wasn't a soul around. Kiba shivered, an eerie feeling settling on the five of them, and Akamaru began to give a low growl. Faces stared out from windows, shadows flickered from alleyways, but Tsunade kept marching them all the way through the street. The next road was busier, still quiet, but there were actually people here this time. They all looked at the group, some bowing before the Hokage, some glaring at the boy in her arms. Their progress was met with strange looks, and suspicious faces, but eventually they reached the Hokage's house. A woman opened the door, and ushered them in, as the Tsunade took them to a light room with light blue walls and white furniture. For a second time in the past few weeks her white furniture was covered in blood as she lowered Naruto onto the bed.

'Sasuke, I need to work alone, go into the sitting room with Kiba and Akamaru.' Sasuke nodded, and the three of them went into the sitting room. Kiba was about to sit down when Sasuke turned and went towards the front door.

'Whoa whoa, dude,' Kiba said, grabbing his arm, and pulling him around to face him, 'the hell are you doing?'

'I'm…I shouldn't be here…I'm leaving…' Sasuke didn't meet Kiba's eyes.

'…you're shitting me…'

'You don't understand-'

'No, I don't. Something really fucked up is going on, and I'm trying to stay calm, I really am, but Naruto keeps getting bloodied up, Shikamaru was tied up in a ditch by your house and I find out he was replaced by fuck knows what, Hinata is in intensive care, almost dead, Sakura runs off when we tell her what happened and returns with the fucking Hokage, who then tells me to track you, and Akamaru leads me to a deserted part of the village down an alleyway where you're all bloody and standing over Naruto, who's completely fucked. You're bloody right I don't understand. But I can just about accept it's all happening. You leaving though? Fuck no, I refuse to accept that.' Kiba glared at Sasuke, who visibly slumped.

'You don't understand, I…I'm so powerless…I couldn't do anything…they used…my own…and all I could do was shout, and cry, like a fucking baby…'

'Look, everything's messed up, I get that, you feel powerless, so do I, I have no idea how to help, how to stop this, but we can't just walk away from Naruto. Work through your guilt and confidence issues on your own. Right now Naruto needs people around him. Especially you. I'm not an idiot. I can see what's between you two.'

Sasuke glared at Kiba, anger invading his despair.

'You think I should be with him? Really? I can't save him, I can't protect him, it was MY kunai that stabbed him, it's ME he ran from because he thought he'd hurt ME, I'M the one who can NEVER GET THERE IN TIME!'

'OH MY GOD, SO YOU'RE NOT A HERO, GET USED TO IT, BEING HUMAN IS NORMAL, GET OFF YOUR PEDESTAL ALREADY!'

Sasuke swung at Kiba, who dodged and kicked out, but Sasuke leapt into the air, twisting around, swiping at Kiba, who rolled out the way, before throwing a kunai at the raven, missing by inches as the boy darted forwards, a vicious snarl on his lips, grabbing at his sides, and seeming to only throw one shuriken, which Kiba dodged, but a second one closely followed it that would have caught Kiba if Akamaru had not pinned him down quickly, before rolling off him,

'Hah, activating Kage shuriken no Jutsu, you sure you're strong enough for that?' Kiba jeered, and Sasuke yelled as he charged at Kiba, fireballs blazing in his hands.

From the hallway Tsunade watched, arms crossed, and leaning against the wooden wall of the hallway.

'Um…Hokage…' whispered a maid, 'They're…destroying the living room.'

'I know.' Tsunade replied, calmly.

'Should we not…stop them?' stammered the girl.

'No. Sasuke needs to get this out of his system, and Kiba can handle himself. Besides. Sasuke can afford to replace the furniture. And I really need to get a brown sofa.'


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey guys, this is the last chapter! I would just like to say thank you to everyone who has stuck with me throughout, readers, followers, reviewers, favourite-ers, you're all awesome and we're finally here! A special thanks goes out to Yumiyang (non member, but long time follower) who has been leaving reviews on pretty much every post I made 3 your determination has really been wonderful! Also a thanks to my friend (who shall not be named, she knows who she is) who has been physically poking me into posting things, and bribing me with her own chapters. Lastly, thank you to my partner, who has been long suffering, but proof read every post I made, you have made my life SO much easier.**

 **With that, HAVE FUN GUYS! :D**

Sasuke woke up on the floor, no, wait, this wasn't floor, it was soft. Opening his eyes he looked around, he was in a bedroom much like the green bedroom, except the walls were light pink, and the furniture all looked more…frilly, soft morning light filtering through the room. Sitting up, he realised he was on a red blanket over the bed, not touching the white duvet cover. He rubbed his hand across his face, feeling the blood encrusting it, and on further examination found his arm and head had been bandaged. He remembered fighting Kiba, but he had been so exhausted, he'd overdone it, and fought so much that he drained himself of energy. That and he'd already hit his head several times whilst trying to get back- NARUTO!

Sasuke cursed under his breath, that was something Kiba had got right, Sasuke was easily getting swept up in his own emotions. He would talk to Tsunade, maybe if he just had some space for a bit...

He got up and crossed over to the door, opening it to come face to face with a young woman he recognised as the one who had let them into the house. She took one look at him and blanched. _Oh, right, covered in blood…yeah…I should…clean that…_

'Um…bathroom?' He asked, awkwardly, and the woman, still pale, pointed down the hall. He found it easily, and examined himself in the mirror, washing the blood from his face and arms. Splashing water on the back of his neck, he stared at his reflection, and turned his eyes red, activating his sharingan, then sighing and relaxing again. He was no good, he wasn't going to be able to help Naruto, he could do many things, but apparently this wasn't one of them. So far, the worst he had done was just get there too late, or not be there when Naruto needed him, but this time he had been there. The truth of how useless he was felt like a lump in his chest. He could barely breathe, he wanted to break things, but had no energy. He looked at the bloody water in the basin. Stirring his fingers through the blood, he watched the shapes float around, like a red smoke choking the air. He knew he loved Naruto, and could tell Naruto had feelings for him, but he couldn't bring himself to stay. When it counted, when it mattered, when he'd had the fucking chance…he had failed. He pulled the plug, letting any thoughts of staying drain away with the water, rinsing away the stains.

Outside the bathroom he looked around, and saw no one, most of the doors were closed, so he walked quickly down to the sitting room, intending to leave, ready to argue with anyone there. The good thing about the fight and the falling unconscious was that now he had slept from what he assumed was afternoon yesterday to this morning, he didn't feel so panicked. His resolve felt more rational. Tsunade was sitting on the only remaining piece of furniture, a blue arm chair. The rest of the furnishings were scattered around, turned upside down or shattered. As Sasuke approached, ready to put his defence, she looked up, and he froze. Her face was lined with worry, and she looked so…sad…eyes full of pity…

'Naruto…' he whispered.

'He…he had a lot of injuries…and he's…not healing like he used to…'

Sasuke didn't even pause, he turned and ran to Naruto's room, bursting in, terrified. Naruto turned, he was sitting up in the bed, bandages around his arms and waist, holding a cup of tea. Kiba was sitting beside him, holding cards, looking confused at Sasuke's appearance, but perfectly cheerful, and Akamaru was lying at Naruto's feet on the bed. Sasuke stared at the room, then turned around, Tsunade was just behind him, smirking smugly.

'You…' he said, half in surprise, half in disgust.

'Well I had to get you in here somehow.'

'Um…. IIIIII'm just going to…go get…some dog food…for Akamaru…' Kiba said, nudging the dog off the bed. They both awkwardly slid past Sasuke, and Tsunade reached in and shut the door as Sasuke gave her a death glare.

There was silence in the room, and Sasuke felt the seconds slip by as neither he nor Naruto spoke. A breeze ruffled Sasuke's clothes, and he felt cold, shivering slightly. He still felt tired, and unable to think of anything to say. He couldn't turn around, he couldn't meet those blue eye's and see-

'Thank you.'

Sasuke turned around, Naruto was looking out the window, holding the tea close, warming himself with it as if he'd been chilled to the bone.

'But…but I couldn't…I didn't…do anything…' Sasuke's words choked in his throat, and Naruto turned to look at him, eyes blue and full of hope, something they hadn't had in them since this began. In fact, Sasuke didn't remember them ever shining like this.

'You stopped them. Him. He was going to…again…but you stopped him, you…you couldn't use your sharingan, your hands were tied behind you, but you still stood between him and me…you protected me.'

Sasuke felt like something in his chest was shattering, he began to cry, and fell forwards, slumping against the bed, sobbing. Naruto panicked, putting down his tea, and trying to lift Sasuke up, finally managing to bring his face up, only to see that through the tears, Sasuke was smiling.

'You…you always see the best…' Sasuke sobbed, wrapping his arms around Naruto's waist and squeezing him tightly. It hurt, but Naruto let him, hugging Sasuke's head, his eyes welling up. '…I couldn't fight them, I couldn't protect you for more than a second, and it was my kunai that hurt you…if I hadn't been there he might not have…have made you suffer so…but you still thank me…Naruto…you're amazing…I love you so much…' Sasuke cried.

'Of course I'm going to value someone who stands, quite literally, between me and someone who wants to…hurt me. I'd be a fucking idiot not to.' Naruto's voice was calm, but tears dripped down his face into the raven hair. He felt scared, terrified, weak, and like something terrible was going to happen, but when he had thought he was going to experience that nightmare again, worse than pain, worse than anything he'd ever had before…suddenly Sasuke had been there, standing above him, protecting him. He'd survived, it hadn't happened…he was safe…Kiba, Tsunade, Sakura, Chouji, Hinata, so many people had a hand in his rescue, and Sasuke…something felt different inside him, the terror, the cold grip the stranger had on his heart and mind, it was all softening. Hope was blossoming. He could do this. They all could. They would survive this. 'I love you too.' He whispered, and felt Sasuke cling to him, and slowly stop sobbing.

'Your tea will get cold.' Sasuke muttered, looking up at him, smiling.

'I have had so much tea, you can't even imagine, Tsunade's house keeper seems to think that if she gives me enough tea, I'll somehow get better. It's black tea as well, it's…actually surprisingly nice.'

'It smells like smoked cheese.' Sasuke said, suspiciously.

'It…sort of tastes like it too.' Naruto admitted. 'I had to put a lot of sugar in it, and now it tastes really sweet.'

'Naruto saying something tastes really sweet? It must be ninety-nine percent sugar!' Naruto stuck his tongue out at Sasuke, who shuffled, and got up so he could walk around the bed and sit on the chair. 'How are you feeling though?'

'Weak.' Naruto admitted. 'I'm not healing as fast as I used to, I feel like my chakra is…weakened.' Sasuke nodded, thinking that at least what Tsunade had said hadn't been a lie. Even if she'd said it in a manipulative way.

'That's because…' Sasuke froze, remembering what that meant, 'He's…he's taking the power of the fox demon…he's taking your chakra tails. You have nine tails, he's taken two, you're two chakra tails down…' he stood up suddenly, 'we have to tell Tsunade!' A hand reached out and gripped his arm.

'Can…can we just sit for a little while…everything keeps happening, can we just rest for a while?'

Sasuke looked down at Naruto, and slowly sat down again, nodding. Naruto smiled, and the raven couldn't help smiling back.

'Can we play cards? Kiba can't play for shit.'

'Sure.' Sasuke said, picking up a deck from the table, then pausing. 'Wait…you were alone in the room with Kiba…'

'Don't worry, Kiba has a way of proving it's him. He's the only one who can combine with Akamaru. Tsunade checked.'

'She didn't check me.' Sasuke grumbled, shuffling the cards.

'She had someone sitting outside your room, and a slug on your window sill.'

'That's just weird.' Sasuke said, dealing the cards.

The two played several games, Naruto telling Sasuke about him and Kiba's childhood, how they used to get into trouble a lot. There was a time when Kiba's parents kept him away from Naruto, but then at school they would hang out again. When Naruto first met Akamaru, the dog immediately liked him, which made Kiba certain that Naruto was a good person to have as a friend. Naruto had avoided visibly hanging out with Kiba too much in front of the others because he didn't want Kiba to be isolated, but Kiba had stepped in several times when bullies had targeted Naruto. Not that he'd been very effective, he'd been beaten up pretty badly on several occasions, as had Naruto. But they'd always ended up laughing it off. Sasuke found himself feeling jealous of all that Naruto and Kiba had experienced together. He'd always been distant from everyone at school, though he had still noticed Naruto. But he'd missed out on a lot of childhood things, vengeance for his family running through his mind all the time. He'd also been put on a pedestal by all the girls, making him seem untouchable. It had been lonely. But when he'd been put in a group with Naruto that had all changed, he'd suddenly been treated just like anyone else by Naruto. It had felt nice.

After a while, the sun began to set, and the room glowed a warm colour. There was a knock at their door, and Tsunade came in. Before Sasuke could say anything, she summoned a slug in her hand, and placed it on the dressing table, coming over and sitting down beside them.

'I'm glad you're both feeling better,' she said, her face serious, 'but I need to know what happened.'

Naruto looked away, trying to find the words, but then Sasuke spoke, telling Tsunade what had happened, and what he thought was going on. The tails, how the leader had one already, and took a second, the way that the ninja had dug his hand into Naruto's flesh in order to get the tail, Naruto not healing as fast, the glowing grooves that sealed up after blood spilt on them and the tail had been taken. Tsunade's face grew more and more serious as he explained. When he had finished, they all sat in silence for a while, as the information sank in. Naruto looked scared again.

'It's okay though.' Sasuke said, leaning back casually. 'We know what he's trying to do. We can stop him.' Tsunade looked over as Sasuke, her expression unreadable.

'What I want to know, is why didn't Naruto get a fever this time…' she muttered, distracted.

'Oh…I…kind of did…' Naruto admitted, the other two looked at him in confusion, and he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. 'I felt hot and dizzy when they had me, but after that guy had stabbed me in the back, it kind of didn't matter anymore, and by the time you and Kiba got there, it had stopped…' Tsunade reached out and stroked Naruto's head.

'Get some rest.' She smiled, and left the room.

'Can I come in now?' came Kiba's voice from outside. 'Or are you two doing gross things?' Naruto giggled. 'That better not mean yes, because I'm coming in.' Kiba entered, hauling two mattresses into the room. 'SLEEPOVER!' He cheered. 'I made a run back to my place, me and Akamaru have pyjamas!' Akamaru entered, wearing a stripy T-shirt.

'Why exactly does Akamaru have pyjamas?' Sasuke asked in exasperation.

'Because it's bedtime.' Kiba stated, as if it was obvious.

Sasuke and Kiba set up the mattresses and bedding on the floor, and Naruto moved down to them as they chatted. Kiba had brought a little portable TV, which he set up so they could all watch terrible late night horror movies, like killer bees, and sharknado. Naruto ended up resting his head on Sasuke's shoulder, before sliding down to his lap, fast asleep. Sasuke blushed, and stroked his crush's hair; it was so fluffy and soft. Kiba groaned quietly.

'We're never going to wake him now.' He muttered. 'I'm taking the bed. You guys enjoy your mattresses.' He switched off the mini TV and clambered up onto the bed, and Akamaru jumped up after him. 'Night.' He mumbled, and soon Sasuke heard gentle snoring. Slowly, he shifted Naruto onto the mattress, and lay down beside him. He wrapped his arms around Naruto, curling around him protectively, and falling asleep.

 _He was running through the forest, it was dark, he couldn't see, 'not even moonlight pierced the branches,' said Akamaru. There was a flash of gold like sunlight to the side, darting towards it he called out Naruto's name, and came into a clearing. The blonde stood with his back to Sasuke, and as he tried to walk around to see his face, Naruto's body turned, never seeming to move his feet, just rotating on the spot. The faster Sasuke moved, the faster he span, until the raven was sprinting in a circle. Suddenly a shape much like a fox tripped him, and he fell, but Naruto's body kept spinning, and as it turned his face came into view, twisted, a wide toothy grin stretched across it, like a slice across his face, glowing red pits from where his eyes should have been. Sasuke tried to look away but couldn't, golden tails flashed out from the figure. Suddenly he froze, as did his dream, and he felt tired, and like he was sinking into water. He could hear Naruto's voice calling from far away, but couldn't make out the words. Then an image blurred into view, Naruto being dragged out the window by two ninja, but something was clogging his throat, something that tasted like blood…and he slipped deeper and deeper below the water…_

Sasuke's eyes snapped open fully, Akamaru was barking wildly, and something really was clogging his throat. Coughing, he rolled over and retched up blood, a stabbing pain in his chest, blood spraying on the bed sheets. He tried to breathe but couldn't, someone else was coughing as well, Akamaru was yelping and yowling somewhere beside him, his vision was going black and he reached out to where Naruto should have been, but couldn't find him. There was a slamming sound, and he crumpled over, blood choking him, until suddenly something cool touched his throat, and he felt the blood clear as he hacked up the last of it. His vision slowly came back, and he saw Tsunade bending over Kiba on the bed, whose coughing also slowly eased, Akamaru licking his face anxiously.

'Naru-Nar-to-' Sasuke gasped, and Tsunade turned to him.

'They killed the guards I had outside, they're using jitsu I've never seen before, they all choked on their own blood, like you would have if Akamaru hadn't alerted me. I'm guessing they didn't wait to finish you and the dog off because they needed to get Naruto out of here as fast as they could…' her face was full of worry, fear furrowing her forehead.

'We have to…find…to find…Naruto…' Sasuke croaked, stumbling as he tried to stand up.

'You almost choked on your own blood, you are in no shape to-' Sasuke interrupted her; 'Naruto is hurt, he isn't healing properly, we need to get to him NOW, tell me to rest later when we have Naruto.' He scowled at the woman, who seemed to be trying to out-glare him, but after a few moments she sighed, and looked away. 'Fine. But for the love of all things alcoholic don't go anywhere until I get back, I need to get the others.' The minute she left the room, Sasuke tugged his clothes on.

'You're not going after him are you?' Kiba said hoarsely, but Sasuke ignored him, crossing over to the open window. Kiba grabbed him by the arm, stopping him.

'I'm not waiting a second longer. We need to get him NOW.' Sasuke hissed, 'They'll take too long, let me GO!'

'No.' Kiba glared back at him. 'You're not the only one who cares. And for fuck's sake, you can't take them on all on your own. Look, if you really don't want to waste time then just do as I say. Go to Sakura's house, then Ino's, I'm going to get Chouji and Shikamaru, Akamaru will get Shino and…just Shino.' Sasuke felt a stab of guilt as he remembered Hinata. 'We'll meet in the centre of the village, I'll get Akamaru to pick up the trail from here, and meet us there to take us to where they've got Naruto. Go. You're the one who said we didn't have much time.' Sasuke nodded, and leapt out the window, leaving Kiba to quickly get dressed. He sprinted to Sakura's house, and leapt up to her window, balancing awkwardly, his injuries reminding him he had only recently been beat up. He hammered on Sakura's window, and saw her roll over, confused, then spring up and dart to the window, opening it gently.

'Sasu-' she began to whisper, but Sasuke interrupted her.

'Naruto has been taken, the adults are going to take too long, I…we…need your help.' She looked at him as if she were trying to work if he was serious, then nodded, grabbing clothes from her cupboard, and creeping out the room. Sasuke jumped down, and paced outside her front door, impatient and to his frustration, scared. Finally, after what seemed like hours, Sakura emerged, shutting her front door silently, and running over to him. He led her outside into the dark deserted street.

'You're covered in blood.' She whispered, eyes shining with concern.

'Trust me, Naruto is in a much worse condition. Where does Ino live?'

Sakura and Sasuke ran through the streets to Ino's house, Sakura ran around to the side of the house, and tapped on a window. A few moments later and the window was open and Sakura was explaining the situation in hushed tones. Soon the three of them had jumped onto the roof of a nearby house, and were silently leaping across the village to the meeting spot. Akamaru was already there with Shino, who nodded at them. Sasuke kept looking around anxiously as he waited for Kiba and the others. Sakura and Ino were quietly discussing the situation, probing Sasuke for information, and he gave them distracted answers, glancing at the various entrances to the square, until he saw three figures running towards them. Kiba bent down and began talking to Akamaru, before turning to them and whispering 'from here on we go silently, Akamaru has the trail, but we need to go fast. They've tried to muddle it up, so we need to go while it's fresh.'

The group sprinted after the dog as quietly as they could, leaving the village, and entering the forest. Sasuke felt a sense of déjà vu, certain he'd done this before, but then he was alone. This time he wasn't. They went deeper and deeper into the darkness, only vaguely aware of where one another were, until Kiba's shadow ahead of them stopped, and they followed suit. In front of them was a clearing, Naruto was lying in a crumpled heap on the floor, the lead ninja crouching over him, the floor glowing with those strange symbols that slowly faded, blood pooled around Naruto. The ninja was pulling his fist out of Naruto's stomach, three tails lashing behind him. The group could just about hear what was being said.

'Your precious Sasuke is dead Naru-chan, is that why you're crying? Because he's gone? Don't worry, soon I'll take you far away from here. But guess what? I have good news! Now that Sasuke's not here, we can have all the fun we want, with no one to protect you.' Sasuke was about to launch forwards, when Kiba grabbed his arm and held him back.

'He's going to rape Naruto!' Sasuke hissed as quietly as he could, but Kiba still held him back, his eyes on the clearing. The Ninja over Naruto ripped off his trousers, grinning maliciously, and Kiba made some hand motions, Shino, and Chouji moving away and around the edge of the trees. The leader, with his glowing three tails, knelt down behind Naruto, twisting the boys body so that his legs were over the man's shoulders. Naruto moaned quietly, but seemed to not even resist. Kiba let go of Sasuke's arm and nodded. As a group all seven ninja's and Akamaru leapt out and charged at the enemy. The ninja's were taken by surprise, the leader struggling to disentangle himself from Naruto's legs, as the moment he had seen Kiba, the blonde had wrapped his knees around the ninja's head, locking his ankles. Shikamaru, Kiba and Akamaru leapt on the first ninja, the one with a bandage over his eye, knocking him to the ground. Ino and Sakura leapt over to the second one, fighting him together, moving like they were dancing. Chouji punched with a giant fist at the third one, the one from another village, as Shino sent a swarm of moths into his face. Sasuke kept running at the leader, as Naruto clutched him, until he spotted Sasuke, his shock gave the ninja a moment, and he grabbed a kunai, stabbing at Naruto's face just as Sasuke smashed into him. Naruto cried out in pain as the kunai slashed through his eye, not burying itself in his head as the intention had been, but scraping against bone, cutting across the side of his face, blood spattering across the ninja and Sasuke. The man stabbed at Sasuke, who dodged and rolled away, but then something sharp stabbed through his chest, and invisible weapon gashing him, as with Hinata, blood gushing out of the wound.

That was when Naruto started screaming.

It wasn't a scream of fear, it was anger, it was pain, it was a refusal to let this happen, he began to glow and a wind was tearing around him, as he began to grow six chakra tails behind him, and a snarl appeared on his face as his bonds were shredded and his eyes turned yellow. He leapt at the half naked ninja, claws slashing at him as they were locked in combat, three tails of experience against six of untrained unrestraint. The ninja began to cast a jitsu where curves of wind slashed at Naruto, but he burned them up with fire, blasting the ninja by drawing branches from the forest into a wall of sharp splinters, the ninja blocking some, his skin slashing in other places, before he sent curved blades spinning at Naruto, slicing into his legs. Sasuke spat out blood for the second time that night, and looked around. Ino was on the floor, Sakura standing over her body, defending it from blows, Kiba and Akamaru were no longer a beast, struggling to deflect the blows landing on them as Shikamaru was running over to Ino, Chouji had run out of expanding attacks, and was being knocked back by the wind from the ninja from the other village, as was Shino, his bugs not able to penetrate the whirlwind. They weren't doing well, they were going to fail. Just as he thought that, he saw Naruto fall to the floor, tails slashing around him, but one leg torn to pieces, bone showing through flesh. He scrambled up, ignoring the gaping hole in his chest, and ran at Naruto's tails.

'NARUTO, TAILS, INTO MY CHEST, JUST…JUST SEAL THE WOUND!' he yelled, Naruto glanced up, his face almost unrecognisable, twisted, and again Sasuke felt déjà vu, but this time the face softened, and Naruto's face showed through, grim but determined. A tail shot out and stabbed through Sasuke's wound, stopping the bleeding by cauterizing the wound, and Sasuke stood in front of Naruto, and activated his sharingan. As the ninja began making hand symbols, Sasuke copied him, and the ninja scowled, stopping, which gave Sasuke a moment to grab a shuriken from his waist. Naruto, behind him, grinned, it was an old favourite, but it worked. He made a clone of himself, right behind Sasuke, hidden, and Sasuke performed his jitsu, sending the Naruto clone disguised as a second shuriken hidden behind the first. The ninja dodged both easily, but turned to see the second shuriken transform into Naruto, confusion on his face as he stabbed the copy, giving Sasuke a chance to run at him, slicing through his penis with a kunai. The man screamed, grabbing Sasuke by the neck and pinning him down. This was it, it was over. The other Genin were all falling, Sakura and Shino being the only ones standing, protecting the fallen members, as Akamaru had dragged Kiba over to the others, and the three enemy ninjas closed in on the group.

But that was when the adults arrived. There must have been thirty of them, Chuunin, Jounin, the Hokage, they all darted in, and began to twist and turn, slashing, moving their hands faster than Sasuke would have believed possible, Sakura's parents jumping in front of her, Shino's family flying in with a swarm of wasps, Chouji's family, Ino's, Shikamaru's, Kiba's alongside a small army of dogs, more and more appearing, flashes everywhere, smoke and explosions, screams and yells. Tsunade knocked the ninja on Sasuke over, and ten more ninja appeared joining her. Sasuke crawled over to Naruto, and wrapped his arms around him, the tails not burning him, but warming him. Blood covered the two of them, but they were alive, they had survived. The battle raged around them, but soon Tsunade had pinned the leader, ripping something from his hand and snapping it. One of the ninja with her was cutting something into his skin as he screamed, and the tails behind him snapped off, and flew over to Naruto, sealing back onto him. He began to stop glowing, and his eye turned back to red, then blue. The wind around them calmed, and they watched the last three ninja being forced to their knees, and their arms bound. The other Genin's parents were helping their children up, healing them, or carrying them. Tsunade, Kakashi and Iruka came over to Sasuke and Naruto.

'I…I had to-' Sasuke began, but Tsunade held up her hand.

'You delayed for us. Thank you. Besides, I would have to be an idiot to believe you were going to sit and do nothing.' Sasuke smiled, then slumped, as did Naruto, but the wounds on them began to heal as Naruto's chakra tails worked on both of them. Kakashi picked up Sasuke, and Iruka Naruto, and they walked away from the clearing, back to the village.

Sasuke felt comfortable, warm, and safe. He hurt, a lot, but light filtered through his closed eyes. Slowly he opened them, and saw a white ceiling, and yellow hair. Looking down, he saw Naruto curled up beside him, his head on Sasuke's chest.

'Hello.' He whispered, but Naruto was fast asleep.

'He won't wake up for a while, he's healing.' Came a voice, and he turned to see Sakura in a bed next to him. He was in a ward, and the other Genin were in beds around the ward. Some were awake and talking, others were asleep. He felt his chest burst with relief as he saw Hinata awake and chatting to Shino. 'He refused to be in his own bed you know.' Sakura said softly, 'He wouldn't leave your side. His healing powers are what healed you faster than the rest of us, which is lucky, by the looks of your injuries.' Sasuke looked at her suspiciously, and she rolled her eyes. 'Tsunade told us all what those tails were. Believe it or not, none of the others seemed to care, I think he's gained some new friends.' She smiled.

'And you?' Sasuke asked suspiciously.

'I still think he's an idiot. He doesn't get away from that just by blaming a fox demon.' Her expression softened. 'What do you think? After everything we went through I'm going to walk away because of what he is? I know him. I may think he's stupid, and oblivious, and proud with little talent…but he's Naruto. And he deserves you.' She lay back in her bed, and Ino, in the next bed over sat up, and climbed out of bed, going to sit next to her.

'I have some sweets if you want.' She said, holding them out to Sakura, who grinned and took some. The two began talking, and Sasuke saw Ino blush when her skin touched Sakura's. He hoped they would see each other in the same light; by the way that Sakura had been defending Ino, there was definitely something there. But it was up to them to discover what, just like him and Naruto. He smiled down at the blonde. Now they could discover that world for themselves.

A few weeks later and everyone was out of the hospital. Kiba had thrown a hospital release party when Naruto had finally woken up. He was the last to officially be released, though Sasuke refused to leave until then, so they technically left together. The party was a gentle one, what with half the group still being in bandages, and the other half still aching. Tsunade appeared at the end of the party, giving Naruto one last check. She also explained that the fevers Naruto had been having had been caused by a whistle, which she produced, and Sasuke recognised it as the object she had taken from the lead ninja and snapped. Naruto explained about the buzzing sound, and it all seemed to make more sense. The strange glowing symbols were still something new that Tsunade had not come across before, but she had some Anbu working on it. All in all, everything seemed to be resolved. Soon after the party, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were given their first mission in what felt like months. They were standing in the training grounds, and Kakashi, late, appeared in front of them.

'Good news, I've got you a mission!' Kakashi said, cheerfully.

'No, really?' Sakura said sarcastically.

'There's a missing cat. Go find it.' Kakashi said, not looking away from his book, but tossing a picture of a black cat on it their way. 'Oh, and it's called Mr Fuzzy Wuzzy. And responds to that name.'

'You…want us to walk around the village yelling 'Mr Fuzzy Wuzzy'?' Sakura said, glaring at Kakashi.

'Yup. Have fun.' And he disappeared again.

'COME BACK HERE YOU-' Sakura yelled, stomping around where he had been. Naruto grinned, and rubbed the back of his head. Sasuke rested his chin on Naruto's shoulder, and blew gently into his ear, making him jump.

'Sasuke!' He hissed, 'do you have to do that?'

Sasuke grinned, and interlocked his fingers with Naruto's.

'Yes, dobe.'

'Baka.' Naruto grinned, and they walked back to the village, Naruto yelling 'COME HERE MR FUZZY WUZZY, THERE'S A PERVERT WHO WANTS TO FINISH THE MISSION SO HE CAN DO FILTHY THINGS!' at the top of his voice. Sasuke cringed, but couldn't help smiling. They were gently experimenting, and having fun doing it. Though Sasuke found himself eating more ramen than he would have liked, things were going well. Naruto had moved into his place, not wanting to go back to his flat, and visitors were always dropping by, Kiba with Akamaru, Chouji with food, Shikamaru pretending he was following Chouji, Hinata shyly checking up on them both, Ino and Sakura for movie nights, each of them slowly working out how they felt about the other, even Shino, with his family, helping Sasuke with the garden. Soon Sasuke opened up another section of the family house so that there was a large living room for guests, and some bedrooms in case anyone needed to stay the night. Suddenly Sasuke's world was full of people.

And Naruto.

His life was completely full of Naruto. His terrible anime, his strange eating habits, his hugs, his everything. Naruto regularly told him how much he loved this, how perfect it was.

And, sometimes late at night, when he was almost asleep, Sasuke would admit to himself that yes, it pretty much was perfect.

~END~


End file.
